Two young men admit roles in 2020 Macon killings. One will be in prison well into his 50s
Two young men pleaded guilty Monday in Bibb County Superior Court to their roles in separate Macon shooting deaths.
In one of the slayings, which happened four days before Christmas in 2020, a 16-year-old boy named Elijah Jones was shot and killed when he drove into a neighborhood on the city’s west side along Scotland Drive near Log Cabin Drive and was fatally wounded.
Authorities have said Jones was lured there to sell a handgun.
In court Monday, Jaquandre Burden, one of the six defendants who have or had been charged with murder in Jones’ death, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.
Burden, 19, who was 17 when the shooting happened, was sentenced to 25 years behind bars and another 25 on probation.
Burden’s lawyer had at one point during his incarceration said Burden had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and had “memory problems.”
According to court records, murder charges were dropped against two others in the case but remain pending against three others.
Defendant pleads guilty to 2020 murder
In a separate fatal shooting a month earlier, on Nov. 22, 2020, a victim named Ruben Romero Gonzalez was killed while he sat in a truck at River Bend Apartments just west of Macon Mall off Mercer University Drive.
According to prosecutors, Gonzalez, 49, had been sitting and listening to music when he his killer, Ja’Qwaray Javon Hollingshed, now 22, tried to rob him.
Hollingshed, who pleaded guilty to murder and gun charges, was sentenced to life plus five years, which amounts to at least 35 years behind bars.