Left inset: Mindy Osteen (Bradford County Sheriff’s Office). Right inset: Christopher Jones (GoFundMe). Background: Auntie Lili’s Daycare in Starke, Fla., where Mindy Osteen fatally shot her children’s father as he collected them on Friday, July 25, 2025 (Google Maps).
A Florida woman faces a lengthy prison sentence after shooting the father of her children during a daycare pickup.
Mindy Osteen, aged 35, has been sentenced to a century behind bars following her guilty plea to second-degree murder and additional charges stemming from the tragic incident in July 2025. According to law enforcement, she fired multiple shots at Christopher Jones with a 9 mm pistol, declaring, “You got to die,” at a Starke daycare center, roughly 45 miles southwest of Jacksonville.
Osteen reportedly uttered, “Please, let the monster die,” while repeatedly shooting Jones at Auntie Lili’s Daycare, as detailed in her arrest report.
The shocking act unfolded with at least six other children and two staff members present inside the facility during the evening hours.
“Chris, you can’t kill [redacted],” Osteen said after firing, according to the arrest report. It is not clear who Osteen was apparently referring to. The children’s individual names were redacted from the report.
“I’m not killing nobody,” Jones replied.
Witnesses told cops that Jones was trying to load the kids into his vehicle when Osteen set upon him with an Arex Delta 9 mm pistol that she had hidden in a backpack. Security footage allegedly showed Osteen lurking close by before she started firing at Jones, according to the arrest report.
“[Jones] puts in the car seats in the back seat of his vehicle as Mindy follows and watches,” the report said. “Christopher is sitting in the driver’s seat with the driver door opened. Mindy walks directly up to Christopher and fires three shots as she backs up slightly. She then walks back up to Christopher and fires two more shots. Christopher can be heard screaming.”
Bradford County Sheriff’s deputies arrived on scene and Jones told them Osteen was responsible for the shooting.
“I’m right here y’all,” Osteen told the deputies. “I done it in self-defense.”
Jones was rushed to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Osteen was booked on charges of first-degree murder, cruelty toward a child, weapon possession, and larceny. Court records show that she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a felon, discharge of a weapon or firearm during school activity or within 1,000 feet of a school, shooting or throwing deadly missiles into dwellings, buildings or vessels, and grand theft of a firearm.