One of the suspects in the 2024 killing of Florida rapper Julio Foolio, real name Charles Andrew Jones II, has requested that he get a separate trial from his codefendants.
In legal documents reviewed by Complex, the legal counsel of Rashad Trey’vionne Murphy has formally requested that he not be tried alongside his codefendants in the murder case. His attorneys argued that because pre- and post-conspiratorial evidence could be admissible against all defendants if found to be “inextricably intertwined” with the charges, it could lead to an unfair trial for Murphy.
He is charged alongside four others in connection with Foolio’s murder in Tampa on June 23, 2024. Authorities said that the rapper was killed by three masked gunmen while he celebrated his 26th birthday. The others charged in his murder are Alicia Andrews, Isaiah Chance, Sean Gathright, and Davion Murphy. Andrews was convicted of manslaughter last November.
Some of the other defendants have been accused of their involvement in a prior attempt on the rapper’s life in October 2023, but Rashad Murphy’s attorneys said he was not accused of being involved in that incident.
“Because the State’s evidence establishing a link between co-conspirators and Charles Jones’s October 2023 shooting is outside the scope of the conspiracy, and has no connection whatsoever to the Defendant, the evidence is not relevant – and not admissible – as to the Defendant,” the court documents read. “The State is not permitted to introduce evidence against a defendant when the nature of the evidence relates only to a co-conspirator, and when the evidence falls outside the scope of the alleged conspiracy.”
The documents conclude that Florida’s co-conspirator rule, which has existed for almost 100 years, establishes that any acts or statements made by a co-conspirator are only admissible against another co-defendant in the case if they were made “in furtherance of the underlying conspiracy.” The state intends to introduce evidence relating to the October 2023 shooting in the case, which Murphy’s defense argued could mean the jury can’t “compartmentalize” that he wasn’t involved.
Murphy is set to have a status hearing on March 31 that is likely to deal with the severance issue.
In January, a petition to remove Judge Michelle Sisco from the murder case was granted by an appellate court in Florida.