John Jefferson
Jonathon Xavier Jones, bottom inset, is accused in the fatal shooting of Jadun M. Byrd, top inset. (Victim and crime scene screenshots from KSDK/YouTube; Mug shot from St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department)
A teen who escaped a juvenile detention facility in Missouri where he was facing a homicide charge faces murder and other charges in a separate shooting of a man killed while FaceTiming with his mother.
Jonathon Xavier Jones, 19, faces charges of murder, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon in the killing of Jadun M. Byrd, 19. Jones, who was 17 at the time of the deadly shooting, has been certified to stand trial as an adult, police said. Jones was already in custody on unrelated charges and remains in custody, authorities said.
The killing happened on March 2, 2022, in the 2400 block of Whittier Street in St. Louis, according to a probable cause statement.
Police were called out to a shooting. Once there, police found the victim lying in a parking lot, suffering from gunshot wounds. He died at a hospital.
A witness told investigators he saw a white Dodge Journey driving around the area and parked in a nearby driveway when the victim walked into the parking lot. At one point, the Journey drove toward the victim, and someone on the driver’s side rolled down the window and began shooting the victim, the witness told police, the document said.
The victim’s mother, Leslie Byrd, told police she was FaceTiming with her son at the time of the murder when she heard shots fired.
“She saw her son hit the ground and could only see his face,” the probable cause statement said.
Leslie Byrd told NBC St. Louis affiliate KSDK that her son was in a parking lot that morning, coming to see her at work.
“‘They just shot that boy up,”” she said she heard someone say. “And then somebody accidentally kicked the phone and I seen his head just roll and his hands curled up.”
“They didn’t even rob him,” she added. “They didn’t take anything from him. They just pulled up and shot and drove off.”
According to the probable cause statement, investigators quickly linked the suspect to the killing through video footage capturing the Journey circling the area where the victim lived and following him.
Surveillance video showed a man, later identified as Jones, getting into the vehicle and driving away about 30 minutes before the murder. It also showed him 30 minutes after the killing, returning with the vehicle and exiting on the driver’s side. When police found the Journey, they said they found the suspect’s fingerprints on the driver’s side.
A search of the suspect’s home turned up multiple firearms, including one that matched ballistic evidence found at the scene of the murder, the document said.
Authorities said Jones’ phone had been placed into “Airplane Mode” shortly before the homicide and removed from “Airplane Mode” shortly after the killing.
At the time of the bloodshed, Jones was on the run after he escaped from a juvenile detention center where he was facing a charge in a separate homicide case that is pending, the probable cause statement said.
Jones is accused with two others of killing a 29-year-old man in September 2021, police said. He and another teen escaped from a juvenile detention facility the following month. The trial for the 2021 homicide and the escape case are pending, officials said.
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