ST. LOUIS — After more than two years, a teenage suspect is facing charges for a deadly 2022 shooting in St. Louis, and police say the suspect should have been in custody at the time of the shooting.
Jonathon Jones, a 19-year-old who was 17 at the time of the deadly shooting, was charged as an adult Monday with first-degree murder and multiple other charges in connection with the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Jadun M. Byrd.
Editor's note: The above video was published on March 7, 2022.
Byrd was shot and killed on March 2, 2022, in a parking lot along Whittier Street. According to the probable cause statement, a witness told police they saw someone drive up in a white Dodge Journey, roll down the windows and shoot Byrd.
Police also talked to Byrd's mother, who said she was talking with her son on FaceTime at the time of the shooting.
"They didn't even rob him," Leslie Byrd told 5 On Your Side in an interview less than a week after the shooting. "They didn't take anything from him. They just shot him and pulled off."
The probable cause statement said officers tracked the Dodge Journey using Real Time Crime Center cameras and discovered that the car had followed Jadun Byrd, who took a Lyft to the parking lot where he was killed. His mother said he was coming to meet with her, but the driver dropped him off on the wrong side of the building.
Police said they also found security video that showed Jones getting into the driver's seat of the car about 30 minutes before the shooting and video of him getting out of the car about 30 minutes after the shooting.
Police said they interviewed two people who were in the car at the time of the shooting and both identified Jones as the shooter.
According to the probable cause statement, Jones had escaped from a juvenile detention center just before the shooting. He was being held at the facility in connection with another homicide. That case is still pending, according to the probable cause statement.
A judge certified Jones to stand trial as an adult on Monday. He was charged with murder, unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action later that day.
According to online court documents, Jones is being held without bond. Police said he was already in custody on unrelated charges.