Julio Foolio murder trial: four men convicted in Tampa ambush killing

What changed

The killing of Charles Jones, the Jacksonville rapper known as Julio Foolio, has moved from a high-profile unsolved headline to a post-verdict capital case in Tampa. On May 8, 2026, a jury in Hillsborough County convicted four co-defendants of first-degree murder and conspiracy for the June 23, 2024 shooting that prosecutors described as a coordinated ambush while Jones was in town for his birthday.

Local station News4JAX reported the same day that all four were ordered back for a penalty phase—the stage in Florida where a jury can weigh death versus life after a capital murder conviction. For readers following only the music headlines, that procedural shift matters: the story is now less about identity of shooters in the abstract and more about aggravating factors, mitigation, and sentencing law.

Who was convicted and what the state alleged

The men found guilty are Isaiah Chance, 23; Sean Gathright, 20; Rashad Murphy, 32; and Davion Murphy, 29, according to News4JAX. They had pleaded not guilty. The state’s theory, repeated in trial coverage, is that Jones was trapped in gunfire at a hotel complex near the University of South Florida after rivals tracked his movements during the Tampa trip.

Investigators and prosecutors linked the hit to a long-running Jacksonville street conflict. Court filings described in press coverage frame the feud as pitting Jones’s 6Block circle against allied groups labeled ATK (“Ace’s Top Killers” in some documents) and 1200. That gang-politics narrative is contested by defense teams—some argued cell-site limits, ambiguous video, and non-membership—but the jury accepted the prosecution’s core murder-and-conspiracy story.

Why the crime scene drew national attention

Foolio was already a polarizing figure in Southern drill and street rap, with online audiences dissecting feuds and diss tracks. When violence followed a publicized birthday weekend across city lines, the case became a case study in how social promotion of location can intersect with real-world risk.

Trial reporters also noted collateral danger: bullets struck hotel windows and bystander vehicles, and other people were wounded. That widens the story from a single-target homicide to a public-space mass shooting fact pattern, which prosecutors often use to underscore reckless indifference in penalty proceedings.

The earlier conviction of Alicia Andrews

Before the four men’s trial ended, a separate jury convicted Alicia Andrews of manslaughter for helping as a lookout and tracking Jones, News4JAX has reported. Sentencing in that branch of the case drew post-trial litigation: defense attorneys attacked judicial bias, a new judge was eventually named in court records cited by the station, and prosecutors sought to undo some scheduling outcomes.

For a complete picture of the prosecution’s theory, Andrews functions as the logistics piece—Airbnb bookings and location intelligence—while the four men’s trial focused on who fired and who coordinated the attack itself.

Evidence themes that emerged at trial

Coverage of the second trial week described a patchwork prosecution: surveillance from the hotel zone and a Tesla Sentry clip, phone tracking, text threads about Jones’s whereabouts, firearms recovered after traffic stops, shell casings tied to multiple shooters, and gang-unit interpretation of social media. Defense lawyers stressed gaps—for example, contested placement of specific defendants inside shooter vehicles or alternate explanations for travel to Tampa.

Those debates preview likely appeal issues, but they do not erase the guilty verdicts entered on May 8. Appeals courts typically defer to jury fact-finding unless legal error is clear.

What the penalty phase decides

Under Florida’s capital framework, the jury’s next job is not guilt but punishment. The state will emphasize planning, multiple victims at risk, gang motive, and harm to non-combatants. Defense teams will present mitigation: youth in some defendants, family trauma, mental health, limited prior record, or reduced role claims—themes commonly sketched even when guilt is contested.

News4JAX said defendants were to return Monday at 1 p.m. for that phase (relative to the May 8 verdict). Readers should treat exact scheduling as court-calendar sensitive; local dockets can shift hours for motions or emergencies.

Bottom line

Julio Foolio’s 2024 slaying is now anchored by four first-degree murder convictions and a live capital sentencing process in Tampa. The case fused regional gang conflict, music-industry notoriety, and forensic storytelling in a single trial. What happens next will turn less on rap lyrics in headlines and more on how twelve jurors weigh life and death after finding the conspiracy proved beyond a reasonable doubt.