Inset: Alyssa M. Blackburn (Escambia County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Florida home where Blackburn and two others killed her boyfriend in 2022 (Google Maps).
A 25-year-old woman in Florida will spend the remainder of her days behind bars for helping two men kill her boyfriend, who was fatally shot in his home while hiding from the pair of intruders.
First Judicial Circuit Judge Amy P. Brodersen on Wednesday ordered Alyssa Marie Blackburn to serve a life sentence in a state correctional facility without parole for her role in the 2022 slaying of Jesse Geoghagan, records show.
A jury in Escambia County in August found Blackburn guilty of one count of being a principal to second-degree murder, meaning she participated, assisted, or encouraged the killing, which prosecutors previously referred to as a “search and destroy mission.”
The men who sought out and killed Geoghagan, Jacob Colville and Lawrence Bonner Jr., were also convicted of murder.
Colville, the shooter, was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder by a jury in June 2024, and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. Bonner in August 2024 reached a deal with prosecutors and agreed to plead no contest to one count of second-degree murder and to cooperate in their case against Blackburn. He was sentenced to five years in prison with more than 1,000 days of credit for time already served.
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Prior to Brodersen handing down the sentence, several of the victim’s family members addressed the court, imploring the judge to put Blackburn away for life. Geoghagan’s sister, Ashley Arnold, said that her brother’s murder was devastating.
“Now that he’s gone, everything is different. He was just trying to come home that day, and now he’s sitting on a shelf in my house,” she said, per a report from the Pensacola News Journal, adding, “A whole part of me is gone.”
According to court documents, the attack took place on Oct. 29, 2022, at Geoghagan’s home in the 1000 block of Medford Avenue in Pensacola, Florida, which is just a few miles from the state’s western border with Alabama.
In the immediate aftermath of the murder, Blackburn told investigators that she had been at Geoghagan’s house on the night of the murder, but was walking the dog during the home invasion and shooting. She said when she returned, she had to jump the fence and go through the back door, which is where she found Geoghagan “on the floor in the living room with multiple gunshot wounds.”
However, eyewitness statements and security camera footage obtained by investigators undercut the now-convicted killer’s story.
“The video surveillance reveals that Blackburn arrives at the residence armed with a black semi-automatic handgun where she enters the residence to look for Geoghagan but exits upon not locating him,” police wrote in a probable cause affidavit. “Based off the video surveillance and an eye witness statement, Blackburn exits the residence and notifies Colville and Bonner that Geoghagan is inside the residence. After the initial ‘sweep’ of the residence is completed and Geoghagan isn’t located, Colville exits the residence where he contacts Blackburn via phone to confirm whether Geoghagan is inside the residence (this phone call was confirmed from Blackburn’s cellular phone). Colville then hangs up the phone call with Blackburn and re-enters the residence where he eventually locates and murders Geoghagan.”
Geoghagan had been “hiding in the closet” of his bedroom when Colville performed a “sweep” of the home, found him, and shot him multiple times.
During the trial, prosecutors reportedly showed jurors text messages that showed Blackburn knew that Colville and Bonner were going to kill Geoghagan.
