Nearly two years after Jacksonville rapper Julio Foolio was ambushed and killed during a birthday trip to Tampa, the murder case is reaching its final chapter. On Monday, June 22, Julio Foolio’s killers, Isaiah Chance, Sean Gathright, Davion Murphy, and Rashad Murphy, were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2024 killing of Foolio, whose real name was Charles Andrew Jones II. The formal sentencing followed a May guilty verdict, when a jury convicted all four men of first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in the fatal shooting. Prosecutors had pushed for the death penalty, but jurors instead recommended life without parole.
Hillsborough County Judge Kimberly Fernandez, who handed down the sentence, reportedly told the men that even behind bars, their lives still had value and they could still “contribute.”
“These decisions that are made can have unalterable changes that you can’t come back from,” she said. “There’s no coming back from them. You either end up dead or incarcerated for life. And I, I feel like, you know, you gentlemen had much more to offer.”
Chance also addressed the courtroom with an emotional message for “my city.”
“It ain’t worth it. Me being a rapper from my city, and Julio being a rapper from our city, it ain’t worth it. The dissing, the beefing, the shooting. For what?”
“When you’re sitting in your cell alone, cold, lonely, and everybody leave you…The only person there for you is your mother and maybe one friend…I was 21 years old, facing the death penalty. My only interaction with law enforcement was traffic tickets. Wake up the next morning, I’m facing the death penalty. That’s how quick life can change.”
Foolio was killed on June 23, 2024, after traveling from Jacksonville to Tampa to celebrate his 26th birthday. Tampa Police said officers responded to a shooting at 11606 McKinley Drive, where two vehicles had been shot at outside a Home2 Suites hotel. Foolio died at the scene, and three other people were injured.
According to Tampa Police, investigators said Chance, Andrews, Gathright, Davion Murphy, and Rashad Murphy traveled from Jacksonville to Tampa in two vehicles as part of a “targeted gang-related killing.” Authorities alleged Chance and Alicia Andrews helped track Foolio’s movements before three armed shooters opened fire. Police identified the alleged shooters as Rashad Murphy, Sean Gathright, and Davion Murphy.
The case was tied by authorities to an ongoing Jacksonville feud involving 6 Block, ATK, and 1200. Prosecutors said the defendants tracked Foolio to two Tampa nightclubs before following him to the hotel near the University of South Florida.
A fifth defendant, Alicia Andrews, was tried separately. She was convicted of manslaughter in October 2025 and sentenced to 15 years in prison in May 2026.
