Macon man charged with murder was urged by judge 5 years ago to ‘get your mind right’
On Thursday, 76 days after the shooting death of a young woman in the early hours of a Thanksgiving-weekend morning, police arrested a Macon man and charged him with murder.
The suspect, Johnny Jaraymond Jackson, 33, was jailed in connection with the death of Raiyawna Nibrea Moser-Powell.
Powell, 24, was fatally wounded and driven to a Macon hospital about 6 a.m. on Nov. 28.
Powell, who was from Byron, arrived at the hospital with another woman who was also wounded, police have said. It hasn’t been publicly divulged where the shooting happened or what may have prompted it.
What led Bibb County sheriff’s investigators to suspect Jackson and arrest him at a house at 4305 Napier Ave. also remains unclear.
What is known are accounts from court records of Jackson’s numerous prior brushes with the law, one of which he was punished for five years ago this month.
Cocaine, weed and a Taser
Perhaps most notable was a February 2014 episode.
Jackson was a backseat passenger in a Nissan Maxima that a sheriff’s deputy pulled over in downtown because the driver wasn’t wearing a seat belt.
The car reeked of weed and alcohol. The driver was charged with DUI. The cops told Jackson and another passenger to get rides because the Maxima was being towed.
Jackson asked if he could make a call, but first he agreed to be patted down by the deputy.
But as the pat-down began, he tried to run. A struggle ensued and another deputy rushed over to restrain Jackson, who fought and flailed trying to break free. It took a jolt from a Taser to subdue Jackson.
In his jean pockets, deputies found more than $900 cash along with 36 baggies of cocaine, 24 baggies of marijuana and four packets of ecstasy.
Two years later, in February 2016, at his sentencing for drug-possession-with-intent and obstruction of a law enforcement officer, a probation officer read a list of Jackson’s prior arrests.
Jackson, the probation officer said, had been sentenced in March 2007 as a first-offender and sent to a detention center for two years for shooting a Macon man six months earlier.
Jackson was arrested again in July 2010 on a theft-by-receiving charge. The following May, he was locked up again for allegedly driving with a suspended license and eluding the police.
Two months later, in July 2011, he was charged with disorderly conduct.
The next year, in May, he was charged with driving with a suspended license.
Then in August 2012, Jackson was shot in the chest at Club Action on Pio Nono Avenue. He survived the wound. The following spring, he tested positive for marijuana at a check-in with his probation officer and was sent to substance-abuse counseling.
In February 2016, when he pleaded guilty to the drug and obstruction charges stemming from the 2014 traffic stop, Jackson was sentenced to 10 years — four behind bars with the rest to be served on probation.
As he stood before Bibb Superior Court Judge Verda M. Colvin, Jackson answered a string of standard questions. He said he quit school in 10th grade.
Later, after the probation officer had read Jackson’s string of priors, the judge had some deeper questions for Jackson about his past — and his future.
‘Let the dope game go’
Colvin’s remarks were noted in a transcript of the hearing.
“Mr. Jackson,” the judge, known for her often stern, yet from-the-heart lectures, began. “What you have shown so far (in life) suggests that you want to be a part of the criminal system for your entire life. ... What are you doing with your life?”
“I’m making bad choices,” Jackson replied.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Colvin interrupted.
“I’m going to get it right,” Jackson offered.
“Get beyond bad choices,” the judge shot back. “This is ridiculous. This is saying, ‘I don’t care about my community. I don’t care about society. I don’t even care about myself.’”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jackson said.
Colvin went on to tell him that while she was ordering him sent to prison for four years, he would probably get out before then. (Which, in fact, he did. He was released in November 2017, 21 months after sentencing.)
“Since the system will let you out likely before four years is served,” the judge explained, “you’re going to have to walk a straight line. ... Let the dope game go.”
“Yes, ma’am,” came the reply.
“Do something different with your life,” said Colvin, who stipulated that Jackson earn his GED diploma as part of his sentence.
Jackson then asked if he could say something.
Sure, the judge said.
Jackson said he had recently been hired at a local chicken plant. “I have a good job.” He said he had been set to start work that very day.
So, the judge wondered, why hadn’t Jackson done that years earlier?
“Why?” Colvin wanted to know. “Tell me why.”
“Bad choices, wrong friends,” Jackson said.
Colvin told Jackson to think back.
“Every time you’ve gotten in trouble,” she said, “or whatever the circumstances were, it was usually around more than one guy ... wasn’t it?”
Yeah, Jackson said.
“You need to change your playground and your playmates. ... You need to aspire to do something different,” Colvin said.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Get your mind right,” the judge said.
As she often did from the bench, Colvin offered to correspond with Jackson in prison to, as she put it, “try to inspire you and encourage you.”
But the judge told Jackson she would leave it to him.
He had to reach out to her first.
“Yes, ma’am,” Jackson said, but he never did.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 3:45 PM.