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Background: News footage of Jermaine Williams in court for his arraignment in June 2024 (WHAM). Insets (left to right): Timothy Chealey and Shatina Jones (Facebook).
A man from New York faces a lifetime in prison after he fatally shot two individuals while they stood on a porch.
Jermaine Williams, aged 25, was convicted by a jury last month on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. The verdict came nearly two years after the tragic deaths of 46-year-old Shatina Jones and 43-year-old Timothy Chealey. On Wednesday, Williams received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. As reported by the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office, the fatal shooting occurred on May 6, 2024, in Rochester, New York, after a concert Jones and Chealey attended earlier that evening.
Williams had an altercation with an unidentified person at the concert, which led him to follow them to the house where Jones and Chealey were present. Upon arrival, Williams opened fire, resulting in the deaths of Jones and Chealey. A third person was also shot but survived the incident.
According to local ABC affiliate WHAM, Jones and Chealey had attended a Sexyy Red concert at the Blue Cross Arena. Jones, a resident of Buffalo, New York, was in Rochester to celebrate her daughter’s birthday.
Jones’ family shared with WHAM that she had known the homeowner for over three decades. Her sister, Andrea Tripp, remarked, “Our families grew up together, so it was just my sister spending one night at her best friend’s house.”
On the night she was killed, Jones had stepped out of the house to smoke a cigarette on the front porch when Williams started firing.
The nature of Jones’s relationship with Chealey remained unclear.
After the shooting, Williams fled but was apprehended in a neighboring county by the U.S. Marshals.
Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Adam VanHeyst said in a press release following Williams’ conviction, “What should have remained a minor dispute at a concert turned into a calculated and cowardly act of retaliation.” He added, “Jermaine Williams made a conscious decision to arm himself and open fire on a porch full of individuals — killing Timothy Chealey and Shatina Jones, one of whom had nothing to do with the earlier altercation.”