Man pleads guilty to 2019 shooting that injured Texas Tech football player
A 28-year-old man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he admitted to a shooting in 2019 that injured a Texas Tech freshman, ending his football career.
Asia Devine Jackson, who has been held at the Lubbock County Detention Center since his April 28, 2019 arrest, appeared in the 364th District Court on Friday and pleaded guilty to a count of aggravated assault causing bodily injury with a deadly weapon. The offense is a second-degree felony that carries a punishment of two to 20 years in prison.
As part of his plea bargain with the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office, a second count was dismissed.
Jackson admitted to the April 27, 2019, shooting that seriously injured John Scott III. A woman also suffered minor injuries from a gunshot.
His conviction stems from a Lubbock police investigation of an April 27, 2019, shooting that detectives discovered resulted after Jackson was splashed with water from a water gun fight, according to an arrest warrant.
Lubbock police responding to a report of shots fired in the area found Scott suffering serious injuries from a gunshot wound. Kiana Pipkins, who suffered a gunshot wound with minor injuries, was found in the 900 block of Avenue S where she had fled. The two were taken to University Medical Center.
Witnesses at the scene described the shooter as a black man who had dreadlocks with blonde tips. One of the witnesses told police she knew the shooter by the nickname "Ace," according to an arrest warrant.
Another witness told police he and others were playing with water guns in the pool as Jackson walked past them. He said Jackson was splashed with some water and became upset. Scott, a 6-foot-3, 275 pound defensive lineman from Hitchcock, reportedly tried to diffuse the situation, telling Jackson people were just trying to have fun at a pool party. But Jackson brandished a pistol from his waist band, swung it around before firing it multiple times, striking Scott and Pipkins.
More than 200 people were in or around the pool at the time, according to police at the scene.
The shooter ran away. However, later that night, Jackson's girlfriend arrived at the scene and answered a phone call from him in front of police. He reportedly asked her to tell authorities that he wasn't the shooter and to say it was another man with dreadlocks. Jackson reportedly said he had left Lubbock and was heading to Midland, the warrant states.
According to the warrant, Jackson also wrote a Facebook post denying he was the shooter and asked friends to tell authorities he wasn't involved.
However, investigators obtained images of the shooter from a security camera at the pool and compared it to Jackson's old booking photos and found them to be the same person, the warrant states.
Jackson surrendered to police, hours after officials issued a news release along with his picture that identified him as a suspect in the shooting.
Scott was released from the hospital a week after the shooting.
Scott signed with the Red Raiders in February 2018 and was listed as a defensive lineman and was redshirted that season. He missed the next season as he continued to recover from the shooting, according to the Tech website.
However, Tech officials said Scott left the program sometime after the shooting.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Man sentenced to 10 years for 2019 shooting that injured Tech player
