Spencer Orlando Gilbert II (left and right) in Johnson County Sheriff’s Office mug shots, Ja’Den Moblin (center) in a GoFundMe photo.
A 20-year-old in Texas who bragged on Instagram about a fatal April shooting and then smiled in a mug shot after he was caught now faces the reality the he will be in state prison for murder until at least 2051, when he would first be eligible for parole.
Spencer Orlando Gilbert II didn’t have the same smile on his face in ensuing Johnson County mug shots once it become clearer that his prosecution in the murder of 20-year-old Ja’Den Moblin at a “post-prom” house party in Godley attended by some 50 students and friends was careening towards conviction.
The court docket indicates that Spencer Gilbert pleaded guilty to murder, assault, and firearm possession by a felon charges on Dec. 19, leading 413th District Court Judge William C. Bosworth, Jr., to sentence him to 55 years behind bars. But there’s a key caveat, as noted by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office: Gilbert will be eligible for parole in 27.5 years (after he has served half of his prison sentence).
Spencer Gilbert mug shot (Johnson County Sheriff’s Office)
Authorities said that a fight broke out after midnight on April 16 at a home where the “post-prom” party was held.
“Deputies discovered that a young man, identified as Jaden Moblin, had been shot multiple times in the back yard of the residence and that the perpetrator had fled the scene with several other individuals immediately after the shooting occurred,” according to the sheriff’s office.
The case against Gilbert was bolstered not only by “multiple videos showing a fight between several individuals immediately before the shooting,” but also by the then-suspect’s own social media posts on Instagram “while bragging about the shooting” and “holding the murder weapon,” investigators said.
Gilbert tried to flee to Houston and led local cops on a “brief high-speed chase,” but he crashed the car he was in into a pole — and the vehicle contained “multiple firearms including the weapon used to kill Moblin earlier the same day,” the sheriff’s office added.
Law enforcement suggested the defendant didn’t do himself any favors either when he “later admitted bragging about the incident on Instagram in an interview with Texas Rangers” following his capture in the Houston area.
Johnson County court records reviewed by Law&Crime shed some light on the origins of the unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon offense.
Records say that Gilbert in 2022 was convicted of felony injury to a child/elderly person/or person with a disability with intent to cause bodily injury.
The defendant was sentenced to 10 years in Community Supervision and Corrections Departments (CSCD) and had to attend anger management courses. The sentence was later amended in March 2023 to add 160 hours of community service. Just weeks later, Gilbert fatally shot Ja’Den Moblin in the head on prom night. Moblin died at the hospital three days after the shooting.
A GoFundMe campaign revealed that Ja’den Moblin donated his organs to “bless others in need.” Authorities said Thursday that Moblin’s organs went on to “save or better the lives of three individuals he never met.”
During an interview in April, Moblin’s mother Genell Jones said her son was a “selfless person in a lot of ways” who would give you the shirt off of his back. Ja’den “really gave a lot of himself to help whoever needed to be helped or loved,” she said.
“I don’t care what you’re going through, I don’t care what it is. Pulling the trigger is not the answer,” Genell added tearfully.
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