Man gets prison in prep basketball game shooting

Published 2:00 pm Saturday, March 4, 2023

GRAY, Ga. — A 19-year-old Jones County man has been sentenced to prison for a 2021 shooting during a varsity basketball game in the Jones County High School gymnasium.

Jailan Lester was sentenced to 20 years on a charge of aggravated assault with the first nine years to be served in prison. He was also fined $2,000 and ordered to pay court costs. The remainder of the sentence is to be served on probation.

Hundreds of spectators had filled the Jones County facility to watch the Baldwin High Braves battle it out against the Jones County High Greyhounds in a rivalry game on Dec. 11, 2021.

Shortly after 8 p.m. during the boys’ game, the large crowd fled from the gym after a gun was discharged. Many of them ran fearing for their lives, authorities said.

The incident happened at approximately 8:11 p.m.

Although no was injured by the single gunshot, it left emotional scars with many in the community. The bullet ricocheted off the tile floor and gym, and ultimately hit the block wall.

“When I say ricocheted, we’re talking probably 20 feet of a ricochet before it hits the block wall and then ultimately ricochets again off the block wall into two trophy cases,” said Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale III. “Law enforcement was able to find that projectile. What the court will see today is what ensued … just pure panic and fear by all in attendance. The defendant was identified by multiple witnesses as the shooter.”

Barksdale said everyone on the call roster in law enforcement from the Gray Police Department as well as the Jones County Sheriff’s Office rushed to the scene.

A silver Honda Accord was later spotted in the parking lot of the gym trying to make its way out, the district attorney. The car was stopped and the driver was identified as then-17-year-old Dewayne Russell of Milledgeville. Three passengers in the car at the time were all identified as juveniles.

The juveniles were all prosecuted in juvenile court.

“They all pleaded guilty to carrying a firearm in a school zone, and I say that your honor because when law enforcement searched this silver Honda Accord, they did find several rounds of ammunition in the backseat,” Barksdale said. “They found a pistol under one of the seats and a small amount of marijuana.”

The district attorney said there was no proof indicating the gun was ever taken into the gym.

The three juveniles received 24 months, Barksdale said.

Russell pleaded guilty on Jan. 26 to carrying a weapon on school property, possession of a firearm by a person under the age of 18, and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

He was sentenced to five years probation.

Three witnesses testified in Thursday’s court proceeding.

One of them included Jones County High Principal Lance Rackley.

Barksdale asked Rackley about the night of Dec. 11, 2021.

Earlier that day, the principal said he had supported the school’s wresting program, then returned to the school shortly before the girls’ varsity basketball game that night against Baldwin High.

With about three minutes left in the boys’ varsity game, Rackley said he left the game and went to pick up some food. Then he received a phone call indicating that a gun had gone off.

He said everyone there was someone he cared about, whether they were students or people he had worked with for years on his staff. One of them was also his son, a member of the school’s wrestling team who had gone to the gym to support the basketball teams.

Since the shooting the school system has made an estimated $40,000 worth of security upgrades, according to Rackley’s testimony.

After more than two hours of testimony from several witnesses for both the prosecution and defense, a break was ordered by Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Stephen A. Bradley. He returned shortly with his decision regarding punishment.

Bradley ordered that eight charges be dismissed against Lester, who sat quietly beside his attorney, Debra Gomez of Macon, while clad in bright orange jail clothing.

“Let me begin by saying this is not a simple case and it is not an easy decision,” Bradley said, “Aggravated assaults come in a wide-range of types and require a large range of responses. I recognize the defense’s position that there are similar cases, and that’s true, but this is a … deeply troubling affair.”

Bradley told Lester that there were members of the Jones County community who were rattled to the core by his behavior.

“But I don’t think you get it,” Bradley said. “I hope you thank all of these people who are clearly, very decent, well-intended folks who have come to speak on your behalf. They’re embarrassed to be here. They are angry about what you did.”

The judge said the crime was unsettling to the community.

“It brought violence to Jones County schools — the basketball court,” Bradley said. “And you did that. Now that said, just because more people were unsettled by it doesn’t make it any more or less of a crime. It is still exactly the act that it was.”

Bradley said had the shooting been done along a dirt road, or a ball field away from people, it would still have been a bad act.

“And then Mr. Lester, when it was discovered that … you were having a beef with folks in the neighboring county, who just happened to be at the same basketball game, and who were also carrying weapons, and whatever sort of violence y’all had decided to resort to, you have the description of their vehicle and their homes in your phone,” Bradley said. “That’s not coincidence. That requires a certain amount of intent and a certain amount of planning. Now that said, we also have to acknowledge that the gunfire is still into the ground and that it was a single round and thank heavens, it was below that particular floor and no one was struck by the ricochet. To some extent that may be the saving grace for you, Mr. Lester.”

The judge said he also recognized that Lester was only 17 at the time.

“That doesn’t mean you don’t have to answer for it,” Bradley told Lester. “It means that you can put it behind you down the road, you will have that opportunity, Mr. Lester.”

Bradley told Gomez he realized the state prison system is unfortunate in many ways, but this is not a case in which the defendant can be kept out of the prison system for his behavior.

“I cannot agree with the state that this is a 15 years to serve, because he was 17 at the time,” Bradley said. “It was a single act, and just because there were folks more frightened by this than some other things, it is still young people acting in a horrifying way to resolve their dispute through violence.”

The judge told Lester he realized that his goal was to intimidate one of the victims with the gunfire, but such was problematic, and he hoped the defendant recognized that fact.

Bradley told Lester that a portion of the his sentence was to serve as punishment, but also for anyone else who might be thinking of settling their disputes in the same manner to recognize that such an incident was “a very serious event.”

Bradley sentenced Lester under the Georgia First Offender Act. The judge also ordered that Lester have no contact with victims in the case.

In addition, Lester must also obtain his GED while incarcerated.

Bradley emphasized to Lester that he should thank the people who showed up in court to support him.

“Most folks who sit in that chair don’t have a tenth of the amount of support that you had today,” Bradley said.

Lester was granted credit for the 444 days he has been confined to jail in Jones County since his arrest three days after the shooting.

The lead investigator on the case was Jones County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Crystal Murphy. Lester’s arrest was the result of a coordinated effort between the Jones County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshals Service Southeast Fugitive Task Force. Murphy sat at the prosecution table with Barksdale at Thursday’s hearing and sentencing.

Before sentencing, Gomez explained to the court that there was information on her client’s phone that he and his friends might be acting like gangsters.

“All the gang signs and information — all of this stuff is found online now,” Gomez said. “It’s crazy and it’s sad. But it’s all found online and widely available, like my teenager unfortunately pointed out to me on YouTube and other social media.”

The defense attorney said although Lester and his friends used gang signs it didn’t necessarily mean they had been initiated into a gang or part of a wider criminal enterprise.

Lester also addressed the court.

“I try my best to keep my head up, especially when I talk with my parents on the phone,” Lester said, choking back emotion. “I’d like to apologize to my parents and the rest of my family. I’d like to apologize for everything I’ve put y’all through, I’m just sorry. If I could go back and fix it I would, but I can’t.

“I’d like to ask y’all to forgive me,” Lester said, as tears flowed down his face. “I would also like to apologize to the faculty and staff of Jones County High School in my incident that made the school feel unsafe. I’m truly sorry.”

He said he was disappointed in himself by the fact that he wasn’t able to graduate with his senior class because “I was trying to fit in.”

Lester contended he dropped the gun after the shooting before he ran out of the gym with hundreds of other people, many of whom were students from both schools.

When the prosecutor asked Lester where he got the gun, the defendant replied he found it.