A 19-year-old Charlotte defendant has been sentenced to 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the Christmas Day 2024 death of 19-year-old Kennedi Jones. The sentence, handed down in a July court session, follows an 18-month investigation into what authorities say was a drug-sale robbery that ended with Jones shot and her car discovered down an embankment near Shamrock Drive. One co-defendant took a shorter plea and received a two-year term, while a third remains charged and is awaiting trial.
Sentencing and guilty pleas
Today, 19-year-old Zion Lamont Jennings pleaded guilty to second-degree murder along with related conspiracy and firearms charges and was sentenced to 16 years in prison, as reported by Charlotte Alerts News. According to the outlet, Jennings also admitted to conspiracy to discharge a weapon into an occupied vehicle and to conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon. Co-defendant Dreshon Moreno, 23, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon and received a two-year sentence. A third man, James Ashley Mason, remains charged and is awaiting trial.
How investigators say the shooting happened
According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, officers were called around 11:20 p.m. on Dec. 25, 2024, to the 4800 block of Shamrock Drive for a reported vehicle crash. They found Jones inside a car at the bottom of an embankment; she later died at the hospital, the department said in a news release. CMPD's Homicide Unit and Violent Crime Apprehension Team identified Jennings, Moreno and Mason as suspects and arrested them in January 2025, the department added. Police and prosecutors say the group targeted Jones in what they described as a planned drug-sale robbery, taking her bag and phone before shots were fired.
Court status and what’s next
WBTV reported that Mason was arrested in early January and, according to prosecutors, faces an unrelated 2020 murder charge and was given a $1 million bond, WBTV reported. The pleas and sentences entered this week resolve part of the case but leave key issues for Mason's upcoming trial and for investigators still working to piece together the full sequence of events that night. Local reporting also shows that Jones' family has publicly mourned her death and urged anyone with information to come forward.
