Left inset: Sequoya Bacon-Jones (WTXF/YouTube). Right inset: Isiah Roberts (Mercer County Correction Center). Background: A bench in the New Jersey courtyard where 9-year-old Sequoya Bacon-Jones was gunned down and killed by Isiah Roberts (WTXF/YouTube).
A New Jersey man has admitted to gunning down a 9-year-old girl playing outside with her brother and friends — killing her in front of their mom — after opening fire on a “family nemesis” in an apartment courtyard.
The shooting was related to a “stupid” Facebook beef, according to the victim”s family and the man’s lawyer.
Isiah M. Roberts, who was 19 at the time of the 2022 slaying, pleaded guilty last week to aggravated manslaughter for the death of Sequoya Bacon-Jones, a fourth-grader from Trenton who ran for cover after Roberts opened fire in the courtyard where she was playing.
Roberts’ attorney, John W. Hartmann, reportedly outlined the events that led up to the shooting in court last Thursday, admitting that it stemmed from an Facebook feud that turned violent that day, NJ.com reports.
Hartmann said Roberts, now 23, was contacted by his mother and sister over the online beef and told to “get down to Kingsbury” — the apartments where Sequoya was playing outside — after a fight broke out involving the sister, which stemmed from the Facebook feud. When he arrived, Hartmann said Roberts was given the name of a “family nemesis” who cops said was his intended victim.
Roberts retrieved a 9 mm pistol from an apartment and then saw the “family nemesis” outside, whom he believed had a handgun as well, per Hartmann. Roberts opened fire and struck Sequoya as she tried running away with her brother. Their mother was outside at the time and tried aiding her, along with local residents, before police arrived.
“He shot off two rounds first, everybody scattered, and then he shot off another four rounds and my daughter got hit,” said Sequoya’s mother, Sacha Bacon-Jones, in a 2022 interview with Philadelphia CBS affiliate KYW.
“I run up and my baby is laying on the ground covered in blood,” Bacon-Jones recounted, describing Sequoya as her “little girl,” per KYW. “She’s not crying at all, she’s just like moaning and she’s reaching for me and I’m like I can’t believe what I’m looking at. It’s not really happening, but it’s really happening.”
Hartmann said Thursday that Roberts did not intend to harm Sequoya, NJ.com reports. He said his client, however, did show a reckless disregard for human life that warranted the manslaughter charge.
Bacon-Jones described the beef that sparked the shooting as “stupid Facebook stuff” while speaking to reporters at a press conference after her daughter‘s death.
“Now all I have are memories I can’t make anymore,” Bacon-Jones said.
As part of his plea deal, Roberts will spend between 15 and 18 years in prison, according to NJ.com. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
