Jury convicts woman of manslaughter for rapper Julio Foolio's fatal shooting in Florida
Alicia Andrews is the first of five defendants to stand trial in a capital murder case prosecutors say is part of a gang war that includes rap songs celebrating death.
A jury in Tampa, Florida, late Friday convicted a 22-year-old woman of manslaughter for the fatal shooting of a rapper who was involved in what prosecutors described as a years-long gang war that included songs and music videos celebrating violence and mocking death.
Manslaughter was included as a lesser charge to the first-degree murder charge against Alicia Andrews. Jurors also acquitted her of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
The verdict is an overall loss for prosecutors, who argued Andrews helped plan Charles “Julio Foolio” Jones Jr.’s murder with her gang member boyfriend, Isaiah Chance.
Chance is in jail awaiting trial with codefendants Sean Gathright, Rashad Murphy and Davion Murphy. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty against Andrews like they are against the four men, but they sought convictions that would have ensured she never leaves prison.
Instead, Andrews faces a maximum of 15 years in Florida state prison when she’s sentenced Dec. 8 by Judge Michelle Sisco in Florida’s 13th Judicial Circuit Court in Tampa. Judge Sisco ordered her to stay in jail without bail until then.
Jones’ murder is a local crime story in Tampa, but it’s also part of a national occurrence of brazen shootings that investigators say are motivated by feuds and vengeance between rival gangs with prominent rappers as members.
We saw it in the year-long racketeering trial in Fulton County, Georgia, against rapper Jeffery “Young Thug” Williams when prosecutors alleged his Young Slime Life gang associates fatally shot Shymel Drinks in Atlanta in 2022 after Drinks was pictured celebrating the murders of two YSL associates.
We also see it in the ongoing federal prosecution of rapper Durk “Lil Durk” Banks, who is to stand trial in January in Los Angeles federal court in a murder-for-hire case that alleges he offered a bounty for the murder of rapper Tyquian Terrel “Quando Rondo” Bowman after Bowman’s associate shot and killed Banks’ friend at an Atlanta nightclub on Nov. 6, 2020.
The indictment alleges Banks traveled from Chicago to Los Angeles in August 2022 with four men who followed Bowman though the city and opened fire on his black Escalade after it stopped at a gas station. The gunfire killed Bowman’s cousin Saviay’a Robinson.
Banks was mentioned in Andrews’ trial when a woman who said Andrews is her “bestest friend” testified about messages they exchanged in 2021 discussing Jones and gang activity in Jacksonville.
One message mentioned Banks and his references to a friend who was murdered in 2012: “everybody be dissin ... So that’s what come with that lifestyle. It’s sad, but it ain’t gonna stop. Like famous people do it too. Look at Durk. He always talkin about Tooka like it’s always gonna be like that.”
“One of those famous people you’re referring to is Julio Foolio, is that correct?” Hillsborough County, Florida, Assistant State Attorney Michelle Doherty asked.
“No, I was referring to Lil Durk. He’s a Chicago rapper,” the woman answered.
“OK, I apologize. Thank you for clarifying that,” Doherty said.
Andrews wasn’t one of the three gunmen who ambushed Jones with two AR-style rifles and Glock 19 as he sat in his Dodge Charger outside a hotel near the University of South Florida early on June 23, 2024, but she was in the parking lot, and prosecutors argued she helped plan his murder, including following him in the hours as he celebrated his 26th birthday before he died.
Jones was prominent in Jacksonville in drill rap, a subgenre of hip hop music, and had music videos of himself celebrating rivals’ murders by pouring champagne on their graves. Police said he also was a member of a street gang called 6 Block, which prosecutors say has a long-standing feud with gangs including Ace’s Top Killers, whose most prominent member is rapper Keyanta Tyrone “Yungeen Ace” Bullard.
Nine months before his murder, Jones was shot in one of his legs while driving in Jacksonville, hours after ATK member Antonio “ATK Tilly” Tilly Jr. and an Uber driver he was with were shot and killed.
Shell casings from Jones’ shooting in 2024 matched shell casings that police found at the scene of his murder.
“They planned to murder him, and this time they were not going to miss,” Doherty told jurors in her closing argument on Friday.
Jones advertised his club appearances in Tampa on Instagram, and Andrews tried to rent a home in Tampa to stay in that weekend through Airbnb. She and Chance traveled to Tampa from Jacksonville with Gathright, and detectives obtained surveillance video of them briefly visiting the Teasers strip club where Jones performed earlier because “like any good operation, the key to success is intelligence, critical intel,” Assistant State Attorney Scott Harmon said in his two-hour opening statement on Oct. 22.
Jones went to another club and live streamed on Instagram — “advertising his location,” Harmon said — and Chance and Andrews followed him in a Chevy Cruze, and Gathright and the Murphys, who are cousins, got out of an Impala after Jones pulled his Charger into the parking lot of a Home2Suites hotel and unleashed what Harmon called “a hellish onslaught” that was partly recorded on surveillance video.
“As you saw, they weren’t going to stop. They were going to make sure that they killed Mr. Jones, that he was not going to live, that they were not going to go back to Jacksonville without him dying,” Harmon told jurors.
Investigators found two AR rifles at Gathright’s mother’s home that could have fired some of the shell casings found at the scene, along with the shell casings that matched the casings from Jones’ attempted murder last year.
Gathright also posted a photo on Instagram of himself drinking a bottle of Don Julio tequila, which Harmon said was a “diss to Charles Jones.”
“Charles Jones — Julio Foolio — was known to all of his social media to drink Don Julio. That’s where the name came from. He was notorious for that,” Harmon said.
Bullard, who is not charged in the case, also recorded a song “within almost 48 hours and put it up talking about the murder of Charles Jones, the specific facts of it,” Harmon said.
Several rap songs and music videos were played for jurors as evidence during testimony from Detective Richard Neader of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Other evidence against the gunmen includes surveillance video from a Walmart that clearly shows Rashad Murphy with a tear in his pants, then video of one of the gunmen with a tear in his pants that appears identical.
But direct evidence of Andrews’ knowledge and intent was scant. She tried to rent a home for them to stay in through Airbnb, and prosecutors found messages between her and a friend in 2021 in which Andrews wrote, “girl, I don’t like Foolio LMFAO, he need to die.”
Prosecutors also focused on her lies to police after her arrest, and her close relationship with Chance, who was close friends with Tilly and was “torn up” about his murder.
“There is no way that a plan this well executed, this well planned, that those killers would have brought in someone who had no idea of what was going on,” Doherty said in her closing argument. “Not only is she a trusted confidant,” she knows the details of the gang war and “has been personally affected by this.”
Andrews made the rare decision to testify, and she denied knowing of a plan to murder Jones and also testified that Chance physically abused her and she feared retaliation if she spoke too freely to police.
“Did you know that Charles Jones was going to die on June 23 of 2024?” her lawyer Jeremy McLymont asked.
“No, I did not,” Andrews answered.
“Did you have any involvement in Charles Jones’ murder?” McLymont asked.
“No, I did not,” Andrews answered.
“Did anyone tell you anything about a plot to kill Charles Jones when you went to Tampa?” McLymont asked.
“No, they didn’t,” Andrews answered.
Andrews acknowledged hearing the gunfire that killed Jones, but she said she didn’t know what happened and learned of his death on TikTok while she and Chance were in an Uber ride service car back to Jacksonville.
The Uber driver testified that the two repeatedly complained he was speeding so he twice slowed down.
McLymont asked Andrews about the gunfire.”It was like a lot, and I looked at him like my mouth open like, like you heard that? But he didn’t really pay attention to me. He like what? So I didn’t say anything,” Andrews said, referring to Chance.
“After that, what happens?” McLymont asked.”He waits a little bit, then he drives off back to the Airbnb,” Andrews answered.
“Alright, at this point in time, what’s going on in your head?” McLymont asked.
“I mean, I heard a lot of shots, so I didn’t know whether somebody shooting in the air, somebody got shot at. I didn’t know,” Andrews answered.
“Did you know that somebody died?” McLymont asked.
“No,” Andrews answered.
“Did you know that someone got shot?” McLymont asked.
“No,” Andrews answered.
She said she was “confused” after she saw video from outside the hotel on TikTok and learned Jones was dead.
“I’m like, that’s probably what I heard,” Andrews testified.
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Doherty cross-examined Andrews, and she began not by asking about the shooting but about “other young boys” Andrews dated while “on again, off again” with Chance. The prosecutor apparently was trying to show jurors that Chance didn’t control Andrews as much as she said he did, and that he didn’t access her phone as much as she said he did. Doherty also pressed Andrews about her continued contacts with Chance using a jail kiosk messaging system.
“He sends you messages which could be called sexting, right?” Doherty asked.
“Yeah, he do. I keep him happy, like I said,” Andrews answered.
Andrews said she’s “not gonna get on the phone and act like it’s a change.”
“I’m acting the same. I’m doing what I have to do,” she said.
Addressing her as “ma’am,” Doherty asked Andrews if she understands “you’re on trial for first-degree murder, right?”
“Yes, I do,” Andrews answered.
That’s when Doherty said what I think may have been a big prosecutorial mistake: “And it’s for hanging out with him.”
Legally, Andrews cannot be convicted of first-degree murder for hanging out with Chance.
Prosecutors needed to prove her intent and knowledge regarding Jones’ fatal shooting, and McLymont told jurors in his closing argument on Friday that they hadn’t even come close.
“All of the evidence, not most of it, ... has been about a gang war in Jacksonville, for which Alicia Andrews does not take any part in,” said McLymont, who is based in Miami.
I covered Andrews’ trial through YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, and I amassed huge views on all platforms that are reshaping how I approach my trial coverage.
I haven’t been using this Substack mailing list as much as I’d like, but my followings on the other platforms are so large and growing so fast that so many more people see and appreciate my work there than here.
My operation is becoming big enough that I may enlist others to help me maximize my potential, and I want this Substack to serve as a round up of daily testimony and other courtroom action.
The most-watched witness in Andrews’ trial was Andrews, with my clips of her amassing millions and millions of views across the four platforms. But the views weren’t only for her. Every video did well, and I saw what I’ve seen with other trials: A big moment happens near the end of trial, and people who discovered the case through that go back and view the older videos of previous witnesses.
You’ll find short clips on my TikTok and Instagram pages, and you’ll find those as well as longer videos on my Facebook page and YouTube channel that appear to get watched like people used to watch TV shows before the Internet took over.
In the future, this Substack will serve as a daily roundup of testimony, with summaries of each witness and links to their YouTube videos.
Andrews’ trial was eight days and included testimony from Gino Norris, who was shot alongside Jones and wept on the witness stand when he saw photos of himself hospitalized. A woman who was shot in a nearby car also testified, as did another woman who witnessed the gunfire. Jones’ friend Robert Howard, who was with him when he died, also testified. Howard was convicted of manslaughter for a gang-related fatal shooting at a high school football in 2018.
The videos I post on YouTube and Facebook include detailed descriptions of the testimony with many quotes and, on YouTube, time stamped links to the quotes within the videos.
One of the most watched videos is Andrews’ police interrogation. Jurors saw all of it over the objection of prosecutors, who wanted to redact detectives’ statements about Andrews’ facing life in prison, including what prison is like and how a jury will see her case.
Andrews’ lawyers wanted the statements to stay in, which as prosecutors pointed out is unusual. But given how concerned prosecutors seemed about some of the statements, I’m not sure it was a bad strategy for the defense to insist the jury hear the detectives tell Andrews she’s ruining her life and will bankrupt her parents and never eat Thanksgiving dinner with her family again while the true killers she’s covering for possibly walk free.
Also, in Florida state courts, apparently it’s normal for jurors to get a case long after the time they usually end for the day, and the judge tells them to deliberate until they reach a verdict and doesn’t mention anything about going home and coming back the next day.
That’s what Judge Sisco did with the jury in Andrews’ case, though she called them back into court about 9:55 p.m. EST and told them “this is not meant to be torture” and that they could continue deliberating next week.
“We understand you guys are making huge sacrifices for us, and we don’t wish to abuse you in the process,” she said.
‘ The jurors chose to keep working, and they reached a verdict about 45 minutes later. Earlier in the evening, they asked one question: “Does criteria number one in the definition of principle apply in the case of second-degree murder.” The answer was yes. Jurors rejected second-degree murder as well as first-degree when they convicted Andrews of manslaughter.
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