Zodiac Lounge killer sentenced to life without parole

Jacqueline Sanders was in bed when her phone rang at about 3:45 a.m.

Her mother was on the other end of the line screaming, crying, “Jamonni has been shot. ... Get to the Zodiac quick.”

Sanders said she doesn’t remember the drive from her east Macon home to the Zodiac Lounge in downtown Macon.

“I was just driving so fast. I was going through red lights,” she said. “I was praying that he’d be all right when I got there.”

But when Sanders arrived, she spotted her brother. He’d beaten her there.

“He was shaking his head ‘no,’ ” Sanders said. “I just started crying. ... I couldn’t stop crying.”

Sanders sat through a trial last week for 32-year-old Andre Bonner, the Westside Mafia gang member jurors convicted Friday of fatally shooting her 17-year-old son, Jamonni Bland, in the club’s underground parking deck July 5, 2013.

Bibb County Superior Court Judge Howard Simms sentenced Bonner to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 20 years during a Wednesday hearing.

Jurors deliberated for about four hours before finding Bonner guilty of murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and four counts of violating Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act.

He was acquitted of two counts of violating the gang act stemming from allegations he assaulted a deputy at the Bibb County jail while he awaited trial.

Bonner proclaimed his innocence during Wednesday’s hearing, saying, “I’m a victim. I was shot two times.”

Simms responded, “Your victim is long dead, and he died at your hand.”

Bonner remarked a few minutes later that two of the witnesses against him testified to save themselves. They’re also charged in the case, and at least one has a plea deal.

He said the security guard who testified he shot Bonner to defend Bland might have actually been the person who killed the teenager.

“You’re about as stone cold guilty as anybody who’s ever stood here in front of me,” the judge said.

Simms said gang members like Bonner like to portray themselves as being dangerous and bad, and they are.

“But you’re not dangerous because you’re bad, you’re not dangerous because you’re tough. You’re dangerous because you’re stupid and reckless,” the judge said.

Simms asked Bonner if he’s watched TV news stories that show Islamic radicals shooting into the air.

“That’s you without the religion,” he said. “That’s all that you are, terrorists. You are terrorists on the streets.”

‘GET OUT NOW’

Bonner and other Mafia members were at the Zodiac Lounge early on the morning of July 5, 2013, when a drunken club patron stumbled over the feet of one of the gang members. The club is located beneath the Riverview Ballroom at the corner of Walnut Street and Broadway.

A mass beating ensued in which 23-year-old Deion Davis was assaulted by multiple gang members, including Bonner. Five Mafia members have pleaded guilty to their participation in the brawl.

Moments later, 29-year-old John Michael Hollingshed Jr. shot Davis multiple times, causing club patrons to flood into the underground parking deck. Hollingshed admitted to the shooting and his gang membership while testifying at Bonner’s trial.

A security guard testified during the trial that he went to the parking deck to escort patrons to safety. There, he saw a man shooting Bland at close range.

The guard said he shot the man to defend Bland, himself and others in the parking deck. The guard noted the man reacted as if he’d been shot. Bonner was shot in the neck and arm. The guard later picked Bonner from a photo line up as the man he’d seen shooting Bland.

Hollingshed and alleged getaway car driver Miranda Pettiway, 29, testified Bonner had a gun in the parking deck.

Bland was wearing blue clothing when he was killed, the color associated with the Mafia’s rival gang, the Crips. The teenager was at an east Macon pool hall weeks before he was killed when a fight broke out between the Mafia and the Crips.

Bonner’s lawyer, Melvin Raines, contended during the trial that his client was misidentified as Bland’s shooter and pointed to witness testimony that at least five guns and 36 shots were fired during the melee.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Raines asked the judge to consider giving Bonner a chance at parole and one day becoming a free man.

He referenced Bonner’s sister’s testimony during the trial that their mother was killed when the children were young. With their father out of town, Bonner and his sister were raised by their grandmother, who worked two jobs to support the family.

“This is a motherless child who has never really had a fair shake, in my opinion, at life,” Raines said.

Prosecutor Sandra Matson presented evidence of Bonner’s prior drug conviction and said he’d been sent back to prison for two years in 2011 for violating probation. He’d only been free for a short while before Bland was killed.

After the hearing, District Attorney David Cooke said his office’s crackdown on gang crime is two years old but just beginning.

“Let this be a warning to any member of the Mafia or any other gang. Get out now, or go to prison,” he said.

‘A BEAUTIFUL SMILE’

Sanders said Bland was her oldest child, the first of six.

She was 20 when she gave birth to the boy who would later grow to be a 6-foot, 3-inch tall teenager who liked to play basketball and listen to music.

Although she admitted he had a brush with the law in his short life, Bland wasn’t in a gang as far as his mom knew.

Just before Bland died, Sanders and her family were trying to push him to attend a community college or join the military to set him in the “right direction.”

“He was just coming into life,” she said. “It was taken from him.”

Sanders had to work on July 4, 2013, the day leading up to her son’s death in the parking garage.

She said she didn’t know he would be going to the Zodiac Lounge that night. If she had, she wouldn’t have approved.

Sanders said she remembers telling Bland she’d see him later.

But early the next morning, when she arrived outside the nightclub, her family wouldn’t let her into the parking deck.

She wanted to try CPR to revive him -- to do something.

“It was the worst day of my life,” Sanders said.

Sitting through Bonner’s trial nearly two years later, she asked God for strength.

“I wanted to know exactly what happened to my son,” Sanders said. “I wanted to see the man that took his life. I was there to get justice.”

Sanders said Bland will always be in her heart.

She’ll always remember his smile and the way he came to the door calling her name.

“He had a beautiful smile,” Sanders said.

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398.

This story was originally published May 6, 2015 at 3:07 PM with the headline "Zodiac Lounge killer sentenced to life without parole ."