A 24-year-old Florida man will spend the rest of his days behind bars for killing his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend last year, shooting the unarmed woman 15 times in the back because she refused to answer his calls or respond to his text messages.
State Circuit Court Judge Steve Henderson on Wednesday ordered Carlos L. Jones II to serve a sentence of life in prison for the 2022 slaying of Sha’Dayla Johnson, authorities announced.
Jones was indicted in January on first-degree murder, but after his trial, the jury found him guilty on one count of second-degree murder while discharging a firearm causing death.
Jones will be transferred to the state Department of Corrections in the next few days to begin serving his life sentence, prosecutors said.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, officers with the Melbourne Police Department responded at about 7:48 a.m. on Dec. 20, 2022, to a 911 call regarding a female being shot in the 2000 block of Colbert Circle.
Once there, first responders said they found Johnson injured at a carport, police wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
Carlos L. Jones (Brevard County Sheriff’s Office)
“Sha’Dayla [Johnson] appeared to have multiple gunshot wounds concentrated in the back side of her body, suggesting she was shot as she was walking or running away from the perpetrator,” the document stated.
Johnson died at a hospital.
Witnesses told police a black Nissan sedan with black wheels, similar to Jones’ car, was seen fleeing the scene after the shooting, according to the affidavit. Surveillance cameras also captured the vehicle fleeing the scene.
Johnson and her father both lived in the Colbert Circle house, police said. The victim’s father told investigators he was resting in the living room on his recliner earlier that evening while his daughter was getting ready for work. Shortly after she exited the front door on her way to work, her father said he heard gunshots. When he looked out the living room window, he saw Jones, who he knew had been dating his daughter for the past five months, from the chest up, standing behind Johnson’s vehicle and staring in the direction of the house. Jones’ car had been blocking Johnson’s from pulling out of the driveway.
When Johnson’s father went outside, he said Jones and his car were gone, and his daughter was lying facedown in a pool of blood.
Investigators soon learned that Johnson and Jones broke up about two weeks before the shooting. However, Johnson had “been continuously calling and harassing Sha’Dayla [Johnson] in efforts to get back with her,” the victim’s father told police.
“Sha’Dayla [Johnson] refused to speak to Carlos [Johnson] and ignored his calls and texts,” the affidavit states.
Jones last tried to contact Johnson on the afternoon of Dec. 19, said the victim’s dad.
He turned himself in at the Palm Bay Police Department about three hours after the shooting, police wrote in the affidavit.
“Palm Bay Police said when Carlos [Jones]entered the lobby, he spontaneously stated that he was looking at facing 35 years in prison, but he would not elaborate why,” the document stated.
Melbourne detectives said Jones confessed, admitting he intentionally shot Johnson using a semi-automatic pistol he owned and the attack was premeditated.
The affidavit said Jones told investigators that he woke up “angry” the morning of the murder because Johnson had been ignoring his calls and messages.
“Carlos [Jones] said it was that very moment when he decided he was going to shoot and kill Sha’Dayla [Johnson],” officers wrote.
Knowing she had to work at 8 a.m., Jones drove to her home just after 7:30 a.m. to kill her, authorities said. He blocked her parked vehicle in the driveway by using his car, and he found her as she was exiting her front door for work, the affidavit says.
The two apparently exchanged words, and as she walked back toward her home, he pointed his gun at her and shot her 15 times in the back.
“His estimation in the number of rounds fired was based on the fact that he only had 3 rounds left in his magazine following the shooting,” officers said. “Carlos [Jones] said he arrived with a fully loaded magazine, and his pistol, including the magazine, held a total of 18 rounds. Carlos [Jones] estimated that Sha’Dayla [Johnson] was around 8 feet away from him when he shot her, and she collapsed onto the carport floor in front of her vehicle after being shot.”
Jones allegedly said he bought the gun and ammunition approximately a week before, though he claimed he initially got it for self-defense. According to cops, he said he changed his clothes at his apartment after the shooting and tossed them in a dumpster, along with a box of 9 mm ammunition. Then he allegedly drove off, going west on US 192 toward Interstate 95.
“When he entered Interstate 95’s northbound on-ramp, he discarded his pistol magazine with 3 rounds of 9 mm ammunition out the passenger-side window,” officers said. “Carlos [Jones] then travelled to the area of Nagle Drive in Rockledge, and discarded his semi-automatic pistol in a storm drain.”
He marked the dump locations on a map, putting an “X” on the spot where he had discarded the gun.
Officers said they were able to find Jones’ clothes in his apartment dumpster and the murder weapon in the storm drain. Jones said he decided to turn himself in because his mother called him and pleaded with him to surrender to authorities.
Alberto Luperon contributed to this report.
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