Four men sentenced to life in prison for murdering Florida rapper Julio Foolio
The victim was prominent in drill rap, a subgenre of hip-hop music that celebrates violence and mocks death.
A judge in Tampa, Florida, on Monday (June 22) sentenced four men to life in prison without parole for the 2024 murder of a rival gang member and rapper.
Judge Michelle Sisco followed the jury’s May 15 recommendation for life in prison instead of death for Sean Gathright, 20; Isaiah Chance, 23; Davion Murphy, 29; and Rashad Murphy, 32, for the June 23, 2024, ambush shooting of Charles “Julio Foolio” Jones, Jr.
Jones was from Jacksonville and was in Tampa celebrating his 26th birthday. He was prominent in drill rap, a subgenre of hip-hop music that celebrates violence and mocks death, and he’d been shot several times before.
A Jacksonville detective testified in trial about other murders and shootings related to a feud involving Jones’ gang. Jones’ music videos featured him pouring champagne on the graves of murder victims, including a rival who was related to the Murphy cousins.
Sisco, who presides in Florida’s 13th Judicial District in Tampa, said the case is “by far the longest case, the most intricate case, the most difficult case that I’ve ever handled in almost 24 years.”
The evidence showed a “trail of dead bodies, just one young man after the next, just cut down in the prime of their lives,” the judge said. “It is shocking, and I just can’t believe that any community, if they’re made aware of it, will stand by and put up with that. I mean, it’s just tragic.”
Jones “did not deserve to die for what he did, or ... the drill rap videos he made, but goodness gracious, going and desecrating the grave site of a murdered relative is, you don’t deserve to be killed for that, but you just increased your odds that it was going to happen, and that’s the truth,” the judge said.
“So I’m not at all again stating that he deserved it, but it really, it’s just shocking. It’s shocking to me, and I do have great sympathy for the defendants. You all, for the most part, are young men, and some of you have children. … Now you’re looking at life in prison, and what was it for?” Sisco said.
She said the Murphys “had a difficult childhood.”
“There is no question that the hand that you were dealt from Jump Street was not the best. ... It’s not an excuse, but I do acknowledge it,” Sisco said.
But Chance and Gathright were different, she said.
“The cards that you were dealt were pretty good. They were pretty darn good, better than the average person. So it’s particularly hard. I am heartbroken for you. I’m heartbroken for your family members. I’m heartbroken for your children. I am. So I do have great sympathy. But you have been convicted, and it was a horrible crime that was committed, and there is a price to be paid, and there’s just no way around that,” the judge said.
Gathright’s mother said she hopes the publicity of the trial “will change a lot of things in people’s lives and change their minds and opinions.”
Judge Sisco said she’s been “a very devoted mother to your son” who’s “been here throughout the trial.”
“He’s very fortunate to have you as his mother, and I know your heart is broken. I know it is, because it’‘ your child, and I do have sympathy for that. … I hope, as well, for the community’s sake, that there is some change, because this can’t go on. This tragedy just cannot go on,” Sisco said.
Gathright’s referred to the murder as a “tragic event” that “occurred when Sean was barely 18 years old, and this is a time when the prefrontal cortex of the brain is not fully developed.”
“Sean is a bright young man, and given the opportunity, I believe he can make an outstanding role model for younger people. He’s a strong Christian, and he is liked by his peers as well as adults. This one event should not define the rest of his life,” she said.
Gathright told the judge he believes people under the age of 21 should not be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
“It is heartbreaking that an 18 year old can’t rent a car or a hotel or buy a home but can be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. They can’t purchase alcohol or tobacco but can be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. They can’t work certain jobs or even go on a cruise without a chaperone but can be sentenced to death without life, or life … without possibility of parole,” Gathright said.
Gathright said he wants to “see change.”
“Change for those whose fates were sealed long before they were born. Change for the prodigal sons and daughters who ventured off too far in the world and got lost. Change for those who haven’t reached full maturity or unlocked their full potential as adults. Change for the ones who never had the option to go around, over or underneath but straight through their obstacles,” Gathright said.
Chance said he doesn’t think it’s fair that he’s getting life in prison while his girlfriend who was with him that night was sentenced to 15 years.
Judge Sisco said “you probably know when Ms. Andrews went to trial, she basically pinned it all on you.”
Chance said everything in trial “is done strategically, so how the lawyers optimize what they’re going to say or what they’re going to do, they do it with the client, you know, I’m not saying what she’s saying was wrong or not wrong.”
He also said he had a message for his hometown of Jacksonville that “it aint worth it, boy.”
“The dissing, the beefing, the shooting. Like, for what? Like, for what?” Chance said. “Like when you’re sitting in your cell alone, cold. It’s lonely as hell in that bit.”
“The only person there for you is your mother, and maybe like one friend, maybe,” he continued.
Davion Murphy said he’ll always “keep a positive mind state and a positive mindset.”
“To God be the glory all the time, and He’ll forever have the last say so in our situation,” Murphy said. “As I said in my interrogation interview, I’ll be judged for it, and I’ll forever retain my innocence.”
Murphy continued, “And I just want to say to the Gen-Z generation change your life and do something productive with your life. Because in this predicament it aint worth it. Like it was said before, this not my first rodeo down this road. It’s looking like forever, but I’ll forever keep a positive mind state and a positive mindset, but to God be the glory forever. That’s it.”
Rashad Murphy said only, “I love, I love everybody.”
Judge Sisco rejected motions for new trial or judgments of acquittal after hearing argument from defense attorneys and prosecutor Michelle Doherty, an assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County.
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