Joshua Lee Simmons appears inset against an image of the Malibu lagoon where a young rapper’s body was found in a barrel in July 2023. (El Monte Police Department; Screengrab via KTLA)
An ascending recording artist from the northernmost outskirts of the San Fernando Valley was shot in the head, stuffed and sealed inside of a barrel, and then dumped in an estuary and nature preserve that makes up one of Malibu’s most renowned beaches. The victim’s body was found in late July. Now, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has arrested two men in connection with the crime.
Javonnta Murphy, 32, hailed from the sunny, suburban foothills of Sylmar, California, when he died, after growing up in South Los Angeles with his mother and four brothers. At the time of his death, he was considered an up-and-coming rapper known as Sirtanky and had just released an EP in January. Murphy was also part of the hip-hop duo Tank & Booq.
Joshua Lee Simmons, 32, stands accused of murder over the fatal shooting; he has also been charged with numerous other crimes for seemingly unrelated incidents. A second man, Dennis Eugene Vance, stands accused of accessory to murder after the fact for allegedly helping Simmons try and cover up the violence, law enforcement says.
Prosecutors believe Simmons shot Murphy to death on July 27 and then disposed of his body in a 55-gallon plastic drum, according to The Los Angeles Times. A maintenance worker noticed the barrel three days later, floating in shallow inlet waters of Malibu Lagoon State Beach and hauled it to shore – but did not open it. The next day, the barrel had made its way back to the lagoon and was spotted by a lifeguard who pulled it ashore again and, noticing its suspicious weight, opened the container to make the sad, shocking discovery.
Inside, the victim was found without any clothes, and not in an advanced state of decomposition, authorities told the Times.
“He was a good kid, good person,” family friend Patrick Nelson, who considered himself a kind of stepfather to Murphy, told the paper. “He didn’t gang-bang. What happened to him, I just don’t understand.”
The barrel used to conceal the young man’s body had markings that suggested it came from a printing company, authorities say.
“At about 8 p.m., there’s a high tide here, and there’s a possibility that the container could have come in from the ocean and then got stuck in the lagoon — but we don’t know,” sheriff’s department homicide Lt. Hugo Reynaga told the Times.
The man accused of the young rapper’s murder is known to law enforcement and believed to be responsible for a failed jewelry store heist in early September that was caught on video. In that footage, store employees swarmed the all-black-clad man. One employee at Meza Jewelry in El Monte was sprayed with bear repellant during that fracas. Days later, the El Monte Police Department began circulating a video of Simmons that identified him as the robbery suspect.
Simmons was arrested on Oct. 3 in connection with the robbery. Two days later, he was charged in connection with the rapper’s murder. Law enforcement only recently publicized the alleged connection between the defendant and Murphy’s death.
Simmons is also charged with making criminal threats against a man on the same day he allegedly shot Murphy to death. Additionally, he is charged with one count of attempted robbery and two counts of criminal threats against the jewelry store owner.
Simmons is currently being detained in L.A. County’s Men’s Central Jail on $3.275 million bail. Vance has been released on $50,000 bond. Both men are next slated to appear in court on Nov. 3.
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