Ju'Quan Mills, Diamond Harris arrested in contract killing

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Ju’Quan Mills, 22, is facing two counts of second-degree murder charge while his girlfriend Diamond Harris, 23, was arrested for accessory after the fact in connection to the $20,000 contract hit that killed Bryant Grund, 31, and 19-year-old Antonio Tillie Jr. in Jacksonville, Florida. Cops say Grund was an Uber driver caught in the crossfire while Tillie was the intended target. (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office)

Jacksonville, Florida, police arrested two people and are looking for a third for their roles in an alleged gang-related contract hit that killed two people, including an Uber driver who was caught in the crossfire.

Ju’Quan Mills, 22, is facing two counts of second-degree murder while his girlfriend Diamond Harris, 23, was arrested for accessory after the fact. Both are in custody. The third person has a warrant out for his arrest, but is still in the lam. Police did not release his name.

Local NBC affiliate WTLV identified the Uber driver as Bryant Grund, 31, and the other victim as 19-year-old Antonio Tillie Jr., the intended target.

According to a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded to the city’s north side for a report of gunshots around 11:45 p.m. on Oct. 6. When deputies arrived, they found two victims, one in the front seat of a vehicle and one in the backseat, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Both victims were pronounced dead on scene.

Detectives later learned that Tillie was apparently shot because of an ongoing gang “beef.” He was meeting someone for a date when he was shot. The phone number he was contacting was registered to Harris, the affidavit said.

In an interview with detectives, Harris admitted to speaking and texting with Tillie but said it wasn’t at the time of his killing. She also denied giving him the location. But her text messages said otherwise. Text messages between her and Mills also showed Harris asking her boyfriend what to say to “presumably lure” Tillie to her location, detectives wrote in the affidavit. Investigators also interviewed Mills who initially denied all involvement in Tillie’s killing. When they asked him whether his phone was going to be at the location, he reportedly said “the phone will tell you everything you need to know.”

Mills showed detectives some of his recently-deleted text messages. He said that Tillie “had $20,000 dollars on his head,” which is street language for a contract killing, according to the affidavit. He allegedly received $10,000 while the other shooter received the other $10,000. The second shooter is “known to law enforcement” but the name was not provided in the affidavit since he remains at large.

Grund’s mother, Heidi Doyle, told WTLV her son was working temporarily as an Uber driver to pay the bills. He used to be a truck driver, but switched to Uber so he could be closer with family. They were just staying in Jacksonville temporarily and planned to move to Georgia soon.

“He was a really good guy with a great heart, and he really tried to provide a good service no matter what he did, and he really was our breadwinner,” Doyle told the outlet.

She described the shooting as “frivolous” and said her heart goes on to the Tillie family as well. She said she’ll miss her son.

“It won’t be the same without him,” she said. “He was a rock-solid guy. He really did represent truth well, and he really did love big.”