Officials arrested three people and are searching for two more in the death of Jacksonville-based drill rapper Julio Foolio, over a month after he was shot at a hotel parking lot in Tampa.
Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw, Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez and Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters announced the developments during a press conference at 1 p.m. on Monday.
Julio Foolio, whose real name is Charles Jones, was fatally shot in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Tampa North at around 4:40 a.m. on June 23. Three others were injured.
Jones was celebrating his 26th birthday at the time of the shooting.
Officials announced the arrests of 18-year-old Sean A. Gathright, 21-year-old Alicia L. Andrews and 21-year-old Isaiah J. Chance. They are all charged with pre-meditated first-degree murder with a firearm and conspiracy to commit pre-meditated first-degree murder with a firearm.
Rashad Murphy, 30, and Davion Murphy, 27, are also wanted for murder. Bercaw said they issued warrants for both individuals.
The suspects were members of or affiliated with two gangs, the ATK and the 1200, Bercaw said. He said both are rival gangs of the Six Block gang, which Jones was a member of.
Bercaw said the individuals traveled from Jacksonville to Tampa "with the goal of premediated murder."
"I want to send a clear message to anyone that the city of Tampa is not where you want to come to settle a dispute," Bercaw said. "You will be charged, you will be arrested and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible."
— Jax Sheriff's Office (@JSOPIO) July 29, 2024Your Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Tampa Police are announcing the arrests of 3 people in the murder of Charles Andrew Jones II, known as Julio Foolio.
Jones was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Tampa hotel on June 23, 2024.
Saturday afternoon, JSO SWAT, CPR, and… pic.twitter.com/YiOyQ4Vgd5
During the press conference, Bercaw showed surveillance footage, which he said was a "critical" part of the investigation. The video showed suspects following Jones' location and three shooters targeting the vehicle Jones was in, where he was sitting on the front passenger side.
"It's clear from that video what they were set out to do and what they planned to do," Bercaw said.
He said the three shooters were Gathright, Rashad Murphy and Davion Murphy. Lopez explained why all five individuals are facing the same charges.
"In Florida, if you participate in the planning of a murder, you can be held accountable for the person's death, and that is what we intend to do here," Lopez said. "There were three people who pulled the trigger. You saw it on the video. Five people though, are charged with murder."
She said all five suspects are facing a life sentence in state prison.
"The level of planning and coordination between these five defendants was truly alarming," Lopez said. "It is clear they all had one purpose in coming to Tampa, and that was to kill."
The three individuals who were arrested are in custody in Jacksonville and will be moved to Tampa to appear in court. Lopez said her office plans to file a motion for pretrial detention to keep them in custody as they await trial.
Waters said three "violent criminals" were brought to justice with these arrests.
"These individuals have chose lives of urban terrorism, and with their arrests, we show Tampa, Jacksonville and the rest of this state, we hold violent criminals accountable at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office," Waters said.
Bercaw said the investigation is still ongoing.
Julio Foolio had over 950,00 monthly listeners. Some of his popular songs included Voo Doo, Dead Opps. Pt. 2, I Hate You I Love You and Play With Me.
Jones' mother, Sandrikas Mays, previously told Newsweek that officials were working hard in their investigation of the incident.
"The FBI detectives in Tampa, they are working every day. They are getting good leads and things of that sort," Mays said. "So of course I want justice for him, and we will have justice for him. I know for a fact we will have justice for Charles. They are working day in, day out from the time I got to the scene."
Mays said her son's career choice had led to several shooting attempts, but she "never thought he would pass away from a shooting."
"We have to understand that Charles wasn't getting shot at because he killed somebody, because he robbed somebody, because anything like that," Mays said. "That's not what happened. All this happened because of rapping."
She said she asked him to stop rapping after she was also shot eight times, but he did not want to give up his dream.
"This has been going on for over a decade, and I talked to him about these things, but these kids do what they want to do," Mays said. "You can't tell them anything. Even as an adult, you can't. He'll listen to some things that I say, but he did what he wanted to do."
She hopes her son's death sparks a change in the violence seen in the industry.
"I just want everybody to change who is in this drill scene, because it's never going to get any better," Mays said.
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