Mother talks about her son’s murder

Published 8:44 am Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Javon Jackson wasn’t doing anything he should not have been doing on Nov. 9, 2021.

He was celebrating both his late brother’s birthday and approaching death anniversary at his grandmother’s residence in Southwood Mobile Home Park in Milledgeville with family and close friends. Gunfire erupted outside the residence later that night, and Jackson was fatally shot. His friend was also wounded.

Jackson, a 21-year-old and new father, had to defend himself as best he could. He returned gunfire after he and his friend were fired upon. The gun battle led to his death.

Deputies and detectives with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office recovered evidence at the scene, including shell casings from different guns.

Maj. Brad King, commander of the criminal investigation division, and Detective Reid White, who was assigned to investigate the case and offered help to the prosecution team during last week’s murder trial of Garyuntae Dawon Ivey, indicated there were about 50 gunshots fired and multiple shooters.

It wasn’t long before authorities made four arrests in connection with the murder/aggravated assault case. Four men were indicted by a Baldwin County grand jury on criminal charges related to the case.

Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Stephen A. Bradley and Assistant District Attorney Nancy Scott Moskaly addressed the court last week.

“The court has heard evidence in this case,” said Moskaly, who was assisted in the prosecution of Ivey by Assistant District Attorney Sydney E. Segers. “We’ve been here all week. I know that the court paid attention. I would just like to reiterate that if it weren’t for this defendant that those events at Southwood Mobile Home Park would not have taken place.”

Segers presented closing arguments to jurors before they deliberated the case for more than seven hours last Wednesday and Thursday.

On the night of Jackson’s murder, Ivey was a witness in a murder case involving his best friend, who had been shot to death while walking along a path at The Milledgeville Manor Apartments. Three other defendants in the case admitted their involvement and accepted responsibility related to the shooting death of Jackson. Two of them testified in Ivey’s murder trial.

Devion Boyd pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced 20 years with the first 12 of those years to be served in prison. The other co-defendant that testified in the trial was the defendant’s brother, T’andre Tramayne Alexander. Alexander pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault and was sentenced to 20 years with the first five of those years to be served in prison.

The third co-defendant in the case, Netobia Williams, pleaded guilty to malice murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. She named the other defendants in the case and mentioned what they were sentenced to during their admission of guilt to charges related to the case.

“This defendant, on the other hand, has never accepted responsibility, and has denied his involvement,” Moskaly said. “We’re asking the court to sentence him to the maximum of 20 years to each count to run consecutively for a period of 40 years to be served in prison.”

The judge allowed members of Jackson’s family to talk freely in the open courtroom as Ivey sat at a table nearby with his defense attorney, Timothy L. Lam, of Monticello.

Javon Jackson’s mother, Rashidah Jackson, said the celebration held at the mobile home park on Nov. 9, 2021, was about honoring another son whose life was tragically taken by gun violence in Columbus about a year earlier.

“I’ve now lost two of my babies,” Jackson said. “This has destroyed me and my kids.”

Javon came to the party that night, even though he wasn’t feeling well.

“He had an abscess on his gum,” Jackson said.

But she said her son wanted to come to honor his brother.

He was excited about being a father. His daughter was just 2 months old at the time.

“He was so excited about his baby girl,” his mother recalled.

She said Javon’s death that night, coupled with the fact that her other son also had lost his life to gun violence, has made her not want to live.

“I just don’t feel like myself anyone,” she said. “I don’t know how to feel anymore.”

She said she was proud of her sons because they were so happy about having become fathers. Jackson said neither of her sons got the chance to see their children walk, talk, or celebrate their first birthdays.

“Guns have taken the lives of two of my children,” Jackson said.

She said she watched Javon die.

“I knew he was dying when I saw him,” she said, choking with emotion. “I felt so helpless. There was nothing that I could do.”

She said she prayed to God to give him another chance.

“I wanted it to be me and not him,” she said. “I don’t want to see somebody else lose their life. I do want to see punishment because things have just gone too far with gun violence.”

She said she felt bad because no one seems to be speaking up about violence in the community.

“People are quick to defend their children even when they are wrong,” Jackson said. “But if we don’t wake up and acknowledge when they are wrong, no matter how bad it hurts us, it’s never going to end. I never want to see another mother lose her child to jail.”

She said she believes punishment will help slow down the violent crime.

The mother of Javon Jackson’s daughter also addressed the court.

“I just wanted to tell the court the experience of losing my child’s father,” the young woman said. “… He passed away when she was only 2 months old, so, he didn’t get a chance to become a father and she didn’t get a chance to experience a father.”

She said no matter what happened with sentencing, her daughter still won’t have her father in her life.

“One day I will have to explain all of this to my daughter,” she said.

She asked Bradley to take into consideration that her daughter will grow up without a father. As for her, she will forever be without her best friend. She said it has been very hard raising her daughter alone.

“This is my first child and she doesn’t have a daddy,” the woman said.

Jackson’s sister also spoke. She said her brother’s death turned her life upside down. Javon Jackson wasn’t just her brother.

“He was my best friend,” she said.

She said when her brother became a father, he turned his life around.

Judge Bradley also heard from two people who spoke on Ivey’s behalf. His father, Gary Ivey, asked the judge for leniency.

“I understand that a life was taken,” Ivey said.

He said his son would soon be gone, too.

“I’m not saying he was right; I’m not saying he was wrong,” Ivey said. “I still want to live to see him come home.”

The grandmother of the defendant’s child also spoke. She admitted that she and Ivey didn’t get along. Because she has known him for many years, she said Ivey wasn’t the monster he had had been made out to be. The woman also asked the judge to show leniency, as did his attorney.

When Bradley asked Ivey if there was anything he wanted to say, Ivey replied, “I just want to say I’m sorry.” The judge then ordered Ivey to stand before the court.

The jury found Ivey guilty on two counts of aggravated assault. Jurors also found Ivey not guilty of malice murder. On the charge of felony murder, jurors were unable to reach an unanimous verdict, and thus that charge was not considered during the sentencing phase.

“This is a terrific and sad case,” Bradley said. “The level of intentional disrespect to anyone for any family; to disrupt a family celebration for a fallen loved one; to ignore the pleas of an adult mother who attempted to intercept you and your friends, shows not just a profound disrespect for people, for the community, but also shows a terrifying streak of desire to do whatever you want to do regardless of the impact …”

Lam told The Union-Recorder afterward that he was pleased that jurors found his client innocent of malice of murder.

“I have mixed emotions about this case,” Lam said. “It’s certainly a very sad situation for everyone involved in this case. There are never any winners in cases like these.”

Moskaly said family on both sides of the case agreed there a message needed to be sent to the community. Asked what she thought that message was, Moskaly quickly responded.

“That message is that gun violence will not be tolerated in this community,” Moskaly said. “We’re not going to have it.”