Three of the five people charged in the ambush killing of Jacksonville rapper Julio Foolio were back in a Hillsborough County courtroom this week, asking a judge to split their cases apart. Their attorneys argued that trying everyone together, in a case this high profile and tangled up in social media buzz, would stack the deck against them.
Lawyers told the court that overlapping evidence, intense publicity and clashing defense strategies could make a joint trial unfair, with jurors asked to sort out testimony and footage that might apply to one defendant but not another. They say that kind of legal spaghetti is exactly what Florida’s rules are meant to avoid in a case that already comes with a built-in spotlight and a long-running Jacksonville gang feud tied to a June 2024 ambush outside a hotel near the University of South Florida.
The hearing was captured on video and reported by FOX 13 Tampa Bay, which noted that the defendants and their attorneys told the judge they face an “unfair trial” if they are tried as a group.
Case background
Court records and earlier reporting identify the five defendants as Alicia Andrews, Isaiah Chance Jr., Sean Gathright and brothers Davion and Rashad Murphy. Prosecutors say the group drove from Jacksonville to Tampa the night of June 22–23, 2024, to track down and ambush Charles “Julio Foolio” Jones. Investigators allege the group followed Jones to two clubs before three masked gunmen opened fire in a hotel parking lot, killing Jones and wounding three others, according to FOX 35 Orlando. Surveillance video and affidavits that have surfaced in earlier court hearings form the backbone of the state’s timeline and have fueled much of the pretrial maneuvering.
Why defense wants separate trials
Defense teams told the judge the case’s notoriety, combined with the fact that a co-defendant has already gone through a Tampa trial and conviction, makes finding clean, impartial juries a tall order. They pointed to a recent state appeals court decision that removed the judge who presided over that earlier trial from handling the defendant’s sentencing, following defense challenges, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times.
Earlier steps in the case have already featured hard-fought pretrial motions and scrutiny of how jurors are picked, all of which set the stage for this latest push to split the trials.
What’s next
Prosecutors are expected to argue that joint trials make sense in a case built on overlapping evidence and a shared alleged plot. They have also said they are still weighing whether to seek the death penalty for some defendants, according to FOX 13.
Florida law allows judges to order separate trials when necessary to “promote a fair determination” of guilt or innocence, a standard defense attorneys cited in court under Florida Rule 3.152.
The judge’s ruling on the severance motions will help determine how the rest of the case unfolds, including scheduling and discovery. If the requests are granted, prosecutors’ previously outlined spring trial calendar could be reshuffled. Earlier coverage indicated the remaining defendants were expected to face trial in the coming months, according to WJXT News4JAX.
