Father-to-be pleads guilty to killing Jacksonville woman 8 months pregnant
Eight months pregnant and planning to start a life together, 21-year-old Felicia Rosa Jones instead was shot in the head and left in Jacksonville's Riverview Park. The baby was going to be Ma’kailand Jones, but he too never got a chance.
Wednesday the presumed father Reginald Lawrence Perry Jr., 21, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison, according to the State Attorney's Office.
The number of domestic violence deaths continues to plague Jacksonville and the country. Times-Union records show at least 21 local cases that involved some form of domestic relations in 2022 and at least four so far this year.
A check of the city's daily jail log often includes an arrest for aggravated battery on a pregnant victim, as shown for both April 4 and 5.
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"Some people think abuse may stop when somebody gets pregnant. But oftentimes it starts or escalates during pregnancy," Gail Patin, CEO of domestic abuse shelter Hubbard House in Jacksonville, said during a Domestic Violence Awareness Month event in 2021. "If there is someone who has been in an abusive relationship and gets pregnant, this situation shows how important it is to get the word out ... that there is help, there is hope and just make that phone call. I know it is really hard to make a phone call sometimes, but it may be the one thing that saves your life."
According to WJXT-TV Ch. 4, text messages between Jones and Perry revealed how he would address comments that Jones made about committing to becoming a family, getting an apartment together and sharing living expenses.
“Just kill me now,” he replied.
Three days before Jones was found dead, Perry asked her the baby’s due date, the news station reported. Then on Sept. 25, 2021, he picked her up about 1 a.m., took her to Riverview Park and shot her.
Perry apologized to her family and asked for their forgiveness through tearful sobs in court Wednesday.
“Truly sorry to the family,” he said, according to News4Jax. “Truly sorry. Find it in your hearts to forgive me. Begging for forgiveness to forgive myself. I was high out of my mind, not an excuse, battling substance abuse since 11.”
Recent cases involving pregnant victims
July 23, 2022: Tasheka Ranette Young, 34, was shot and killed in her Biscayne Boulevard apartment. Her 1- and 3-year-old children were home at the time. She was four months pregnant, and the next day the father Bursey Jerome Armstrong Jr., 33, was arrested.
Sept. 25, 2021: Felicia Rosa Jones, 21, was found dead by someone walking in Riverview Park on Water Street. Her baby was due in two weeks. The baby's father, Reginald Lawrence Perry Jr., 19, turned himself in a few days later. It was unclear whether the couple had past domestic issues.
June 14, 2021: An unidentified pregnant woman in her 30s was shot in the abdomen in front of her home on Woodbine Street with her three young sons nearby. She was left with life-threatening injuries and no arrests or motive has been reported.
Sept. 29, 2020: An unidentified pregnant woman in her 20s was shot inside her Kona Avenue apartment, and her unborn child did not survive. Police said the woman was the target of the shooting and three other adults were present, but no arrests or motive were reported.
May 16, 2020: An unidentified woman being treated for possible domestic battery at Baptist Health lost two fetuses. The Sheriff's Office lists these as homicides "due to abdominal impact," but no arrest has been reported.
Oct. 7, 2019: Multiple shots were fired into the Justina Road apartment of Iyana Iman McGraw, 19. She died at a hospital. Doctors were able to save her baby, but the child died three months later. Boyfriend Miles Davis Hall, 26, was arrested on drug charges and possession of a firearm by a felon and may have been the target.
Dec. 19, 2018: Iyana Sawyer, 16, disappeared while five months pregnant. Her uncle, Johnathan Quiles, 33, is charged with two counts of murder as well as sexual battery. No body has been found.
April 22, 2017: D’Anna Thorn, 29, was pregnant when she was stabbed multiple times at a home on West 21st Street, then she and the unborn child died at the hospital. Boyfriend Armanuel Nathaniel Cummings, 42, was arrested on two counts of manslaughter.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville man sentenced to life for killing pregnant girlfriend
