JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 31-year-old Jacksonville woman was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for the armed robbery of a Gate gas station and the death of her boyfriend, who was shot and killed by police officers during the robbery. The life sentence is the result of a retrial.
In 2011, Shaketa Jones was tried and convicted of the same charges and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Jones' 2011 convictions for second-degree felony murder and armed robbery were reversed by Florida's First District Court of Appeal due to a jury selection error. Last month, Jones was retried and convicted a second time on the same two charges.
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"The court today articulated very clearly its reasons for the sentences imposed," said Assistant State Attorney John Guy.
Judge Tyrie Boyer sentenced Jones to life for the second-degree felony murder and 35 years on the armed robbery.
In May 2010, Jones staked out a Gate gas station on Atlantic Boulevard. Jones and her boyfriend, Jessie Cooper, then robbed one of the store's clerks. Jones was parked in a car near the gas station. She was the lookout for Cooper, who was in another vehicle in the Gate parking lot.
The two planned the robbery and communicated with each other by phone right before the robbery took place.
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office undercover officers, staked out in the area, noticed Jones and Cooper in their cars. Officers witnessed Cooper get out of his vehicle and hold up a store clerk with a handgun. When detectives blocked Cooper's car in the parking lot, Cooper pulled his pistol on the two detectives. Cooper refused to comply with police commands, and detectives fired their weapons, killing Cooper.
Jones was convicted in Cooper's death because it occurred while she committed a felony.