Police arrest 3 in alleged gang ambush that killed Jacksonville rapper Julio Foolio

Gang warfare spilled into Tampa in June, police said, and five people have been charged with plotting a coordinated attack between two Jacksonville gangs that killed a prominent rapper.

Tampa police Chief Lee Bercaw announced the arrest of three suspects in the killing — Isaiah Chance, 21, Alicia Andrews, 21, and Sean Gathright, 18 — in a news conference at the department’s downtown headquarters Monday afternoon.

Davion Murphy, 27, and Rashad Murphy, 30, have also been charged in the murder, though both have yet to be apprehended.

Bercaw said the two men carried out the killing alongside Gathright, ambushing Jacksonville rapper Charles Jones — who uses the stage name Julio Foolio — as he pulled up to his hotel on McKinley Drive in the early morning hours of June 23. The rapper had been in town celebrating his 26th birthday.

At the news conference, Bercaw presented footage gathered from area surveillance cameras showing the three men follow Jones, park across the street from his hotel as his car pulled in, and charge at him with assault rifles and handguns.

Though the driver of Jones’ car tried to flee, the assailants chased after it, firing rounds into the passenger side where Jones was seated. Jones was fatally shot in the attack, and three others were injured.

All five are charged with first-degree murder. Police said Chance and Andrews were involved in planning the attack and traveled to Tampa, though they did not directly participate in the shooting.

Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez said at the news conference that all five suspects face up to life in prison if convicted.

“In Florida, if you participate in the planning of a murder, you can be held accountable for the person’s death,” Lopez said. “They all had one purpose in coming to Tampa, and that was to kill.”

The five suspects are also charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Gathright, Rashad Murphy and Davion Murphy face an additional three counts of attempted murder for the other victims of the shooting. Police also charged Gathright with tampering with physical evidence.

Bercaw said police believe members from the Jacksonville gangs Ace’s Top Killers and the 1200 Out East Gang worked together to carry out the killing. The two gangs are rivals of the Six Block Gang, which Bercaw said Jones belonged to.

According to a Tampa police news release, Chance is a member of ATK, while Rashad Murphy and Davion Murphy are members of the 1200. Law enforcement did not indicate whether the other suspects had known gang affiliations.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office SWAT team arrested Andrews and Chance at their home on Saturday, according to the news release. Gathright was arrested at a Jacksonville shopping center on the same day. The three are in custody at Duval County Jail.