JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Blood found inside an SUV that once belonged to an ex-Uber driver has been matched to a woman who police said was shot and pushed out of a moving vehicle in a Southside Estates neighborhood last month.
Charles Rowlands, 29, was arrested last month in connection with the murder of 28-year-old Victoria Braddock, who died May 15 at UF Health Jacksonville shortly after she was shot and found about 3 p.m. on Cortez Road at Brookview Drive South.
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Rowlands was charged with tampering with evidence and tried unsuccessfully on Thursday to have the charge dropped in a probable cause hearing.
A judge denied that request, ruling that evidence presented at the hearing -- including DNA analysis matching blood in Rowlands' SUV to Braddock -- amounted to probable cause for the charge.
According to investigators, witnesses told detectives that they saw Braddock get pushed out of a black Chevy Trailblazer that was going north on Cortez Road.
Rowlands owned that SUV, which the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office found and seized after Rowlands sold it eight days after Braddock died.
Investigators took apart the SUV, which had been cleaned, and found trace amounts of blood in the carpet, on a side door panel, under a seat and in air vents.
The blood came back from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement forensics lab as a match for Braddock, and a detective testified on Thursday that Braddock was killed by a shotgun blast to the head.
A search of Rowland’s house didn’t turn up a shotgun but did turn up a bill of sale for one. Two shells and a spent shell casing were found in his yard, court records showed.
Police also found the man who sold the shotgun to Rowlands.
The judge determined that evidence was enough to maintain the charge against Rowlands, who is being held in the Duval County Jail on $100,000 bond.
No murder charges have been filed in Braddock's death yet.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 904-630-0500 or email JSOCrimeTips@jaxsheriff.org. To remain anonymous and receive a possible reward of up to $3,000, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.