A Marion County jury found 36-year-old Roderick Kelvin Watson Jr. guilty of premeditated first-degree murder, and a judge sentenced him to life in prison for gunning down 32-year-old Joseph James Jaurez Coles in a middle school parking lot after a dispute over picking up children from a student awards ceremony.
According to the Office of the State Attorney, Fifth Judicial Circuit, Florida, the shooting happened on May 22, 2024, in the parking lot of North Marion Middle School after the ceremony had let out. Judge Barbara Kissner-Kwatkosky handed down the life sentence, and per WCJB, the mandatory minimum on that sentence is 25 years, with no credit for time already served.
The violence began when Watson intervened in an argument involving Coles, according to the state attorney's office account. Witnesses on the scene said Coles had turned to walk away when Watson stepped in, and Watson then shot Coles multiple times before Coles fell to the ground. Once Coles was down, Watson repeatedly struck him with his fists, then got up and kicked him in the head before walking away, prosecutors said.
A Custody Dispute Turns Deadly
The confrontation stemmed from a dispute between separated parents over who would take the children home after the awards ceremony, 352today.com reported in its initial coverage of the shooting. Marion County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to the school, where Coles had been shot and was later pronounced deceased. The state attorney's office said Coles sustained four gunshot wounds, while a separate report from the Ocala Star-Banner, as cited by ocala.com, said Coles was shot at least six times in the upper body.
Watson told law enforcement that he shot Coles in self-defense, the state attorney's office said, but he refused to give a post-Miranda statement after being taken into custody, according to West Orlando News. Investigators arrested and charged him after crime-scene processing, evidence collection and eyewitness statements. At the time of his arrest, the Marion County Sheriff's Office had charged him with second-degree murder and held him without bond, 352today.com reported — a charge that would later be upgraded to first-degree murder ahead of trial.
From a Lesser Charge to a Life Sentence
That shift from an initial second-degree murder charge to a first-degree conviction tracks the more-than-two-year-and-four-month arc of the case, from a chaotic school parking lot in 2024 to a jury's unanimous finding of premeditation. Assistant State Attorney Toby Hunt prosecuted the case for the Fifth Judicial Circuit.
Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Bill Gladson said Watson's actions took a man's life and exposed students, families and staff to violence. “The campus was meant for learning, not for an adult to bring a firearm and take a life,” Gladson said, according to the state attorney's office.
The jury's verdict and the life sentence came down the same afternoon, WCJB reported, closing out a case that began with a fatal confrontation meant, by all accounts, to end with children simply going home from an awards ceremony.
