JEARICKA MACK - 14 yo - / Accused: Dontavious Copeland Gainesville FL

15 Year Old Girl Shot and Killed in Gainesville Parking Lot

by Alexandra Cowley

May 14th 2011 11:49pm

A 21st birthday celebration turned fatal. A 15 year old girl was shot and killed in a parking lot in Northwest Gainesville early this morning. Friends of Jearicka Mack say she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Around 12:30 this morning, officers at a nearby traffic stop heard a gunshot. When they arrived to the Lions Club, officers say people were leaving the party, and others, gathered around Jearicka Mack in the parking lot. Officers tried to perform CPR, but Mack was pronounced dead on the scene. Police will not confirm where Mack was shot, but witnesses say it was in her head.

It was Jamal Holmes' 21st birthday party at the Lions Club on North Main Terrace last night. Mack was invited, but Holmes says a group of guys showed up that weren't. Holmes said he had asked the group to leave, but they came back and things turned ugly.
Holmes says he doesn't know how Mack got caught up in the fight.

Gainesville Police Detectives arrested 17 year old Dontavious Copeland around 2pm today. He is being held at the Juvenile Assessment Center in Gainesville. Even though an arrest has been made, the investigation is not over. Detectives are still interviewing witnesses, looking for answers as to the relationship between Copeland and Mack and the motive behind her murder.

http://www.wcjb.com/news/9442/15-year-old-girl-shot-and-killed-in-gainesville-parking-lot

Remembering "Pooh"

by Kristin Giannas

May 16th 2011 11:24pm

It appears that 15-year-old Jearicka Mack was in the wrong place at the wrong time-killed in the crossfire between rival gangs.

Mack was one of just 89 students in the freshmen class at Trenton High School, making her absence-- that much more noticeable.

"She was my best friend...and it's just so hard that she gone," said T'Keyha Powell, Mack's best friend.

Mack was shot and killed Saturday while at a birthday party in Gainesville. News that's sinking in among her peers.

"I was in denial... and I told her, no she can't be... and she really was," said Powell.

Mack's friends and family called her "Pooh."

"She was very outgoing, loved to talk, always smiling... always had something to tell you," said Khalil Kearson, a close friend and classmate.

"We met last week and went over her grades and over her classes for next year. She was very focused, very concerned about how she could raise her GPA," said Mandy NeSmith, Mack's guidance counselor.

Dontavious Copeland, 17-years-old, a known gang member, was arrested for killing Mack.

Jearicka's dad, Jearick Mack, told TV20, "Upon hearing of her death, it crushed me because I didn't want to believe that had happened.

It crushed my heart. It took a lot from me. When I first held her as a baby, she had a smile on her face--and she has been happy ever since."


http://www.wcjb.com/news/9455/remembering-pooh

Fatal teen shooting leaves shattered lives


Doug Finger/Staff Photographer
Sabrina Cook talks about the death of her granddaughter Jearicka Mack, 15, from her office at Lake Forest Elementary School Thursday.

Police say 17-year-old Dontavious Copeland fired the shot at a party that killed Mack.

By Kimberly Moore Wilmoth

May 21, 2011 at 11:46 p.m.


GAINESVILLE -- It was about half past midnight on Saturday, May 14, when a large crowd of teenagers and young people spilled out from the Lions Club on North Main Terrace into the club's parking lot and that of the neighboring Fraternal Order of Police.

They were stirred up after hours of dancing and posturing, and fights were erupting within several angry pockets.

As the melee in the parking lot reached a crescendo of cat calls and punches, a lone, loud bang punctured the darkness.

Like a boulder dropped in a river, the gunshot sent the crowd scattering in all directions. It also left 15-year-old Jearicka Mack dying on the asphalt.

By the next afternoon, 17-year-old Dontavious Copeland was in custody at the Juvenile Detention Center, charged with murder in connection with Jearicka's death.

The crowd at the University City Lions Club that night was celebrating Jamaal Holmes' 21st birthday. Holmes had paid about $300 to rent out the hall, according to Lions Club officials, and police have said the hall was packed with teenagers and young adults.

Attendees either had to pay at the door or bring a gift in order to get in, police have said -- stipulations that would have qualified the party as a “dance hall” event, for which a permit is required. Holmes had not obtained a permit, and police have filed a sworn complaint against him.

Once inside, the partygoers were met by a deejay and thumping rap music. The revelry soon devolved into bickering, police say, as three rival gangs -- the Wolfpack, Out East and Out West -- squared off throughout the course of the party. As the deejay set a simmering tempo, police said young men flashed their fingers in various signs to show their gang allegiances.



http://www.ocala.com/article/20110521/ARTICLES/110529940

Can Gun Bring Peace?

by Kristin Giannas

May 25th 2011 10:01am

Gainesville police arrest a second suspect in the shooting death of Jearicka Mack, the 15-year-old Trenton High School student known by many as "Pooh."

However, many questions in the case still remain unanswered.

"I can't believe it till I see her..." said Jantevia Mack, 18, who will bury her sister Jearicka this week.

"It's not gonna be the same without my sister," she said Tuesday, "I want to know the true story."

Pooh was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Lions Club in Gainesville. Detectives have the shooter and the man who drove him to and from the scene, but one question remains: where is the gun?

"The original suspect never even admitted he had a gun, and Mr. Demps is saying he doesn't know where the gun is at this point," said Bennie Smith, GPD Detective.

Police arrested Simeon Demps, 18, on Monday. Detectives say he drove the alleged shooter, Dontavious Copeland, 17, to his apartment to change clothes. Cops found the clothes, but no gun.

"More often than not we don't get the gun, the state attorney's office can go forward with prosecution without the gun," he said.

However, Pooh's sister says she won't go forward until the gun, and the person who has it, steps up. She adds, the men arrested so far, were "friends" of Pooh's.

"The others ones called her sister, we called them brother, all of us hung together, went to school with each other, and that's what makes me you know? That's just crazy. That's what I don't get, and then they don't don't wanna step forward," said Mack.

There's a $1,000 reward for anyone with information on the gun's whereabouts.

Pooh's funeral is Saturday, May 28th at 1PM, at Westside Baptist Church off Newberry Road.



http://www.wcjb.com/news/9535/can-gun-bring-peace

Teen convicted of murder in Jearicka Mack's fatal shooting


Jearick Mack sobs over a photo of his slain daughter Jearicka
Mack, 15, as he and Jearicka's mother Trenesha Thomas, 36, leave the
Alachua County Criminal Courthouse following a first degree murder
conviction of Jearicka's killer Dontavious Copeland on Friday.

Friday, October 5, 2012 at 8:16 p.m.

In the courtroom Friday, during closing arguments in Dontavious Copeland's murder trial, a state prosecutor played an audio clip.


Mack's killer gets 1st degree murder


It was an interview
between a Gainesville Police Department detective and Copeland, after
the shooting death of Jearicka Mack, 15, back in May 2011. The detective
asked Copeland about the girl's death.

"Ain't nothing to sob over or nothing like that," Copeland responded.

The audio of Copeland's 17-year-old voice was played four times. It was the only time Copeland, now 18, would speak.

A jury on Friday afternoon found Copeland guilty of first-degree murder
in the shooting death of Jearicka after deliberating for a little more
than an hour. State prosecutors Adam Urra and Christopher Elsey called
witnesses who said they saw Copeland with the gun, and experts who
testified on ballistics and forensic evidence in the case. Copeland shot
Jearicka outside the University Lions Club on North Main Terrace,
prosecutors said, after a rowdy birthday party.

The defense argued there were too many people and too many things going on
at once for anyone to definitively say Copeland pulled the trigger. The
trial lasted five days, with Copeland's sentencing now set for next Thursday.

One witness, called by the prosecution, said she saw Copeland wave his gun around
during the party. She was a friend of Jearicka, who was nicknamed Pooh.
She said a song came on called Rep Your Hood and some gang members in the room got excited and threw up gang signs.
The energy spilled into the
parking lot, and three fights broke out. The witness said she lost
Jearicka in the commotion and ran toward one of the fights. Then, she
heard a single gunshot.

"I said, 'Oh, I gotta find Pooh. We gotta go.'"

A group of men, including Copeland, ran by her. One of them said, "Duke
just shot Pooh...!" in a panicked voice, the witness said.

The bullet punctured one of Jearicka's lungs, prosecutors said. There was a
trail of blood from where she was shot to where she ended up, on the pavement.

One witness testified he heard the gunshot and held Jearicka until she lost
consciousness. He said she couldn't speak -- that she made a gurgling sound.

Before the verdict was read, Copeland walked into the courtroom without a tie on, in a white button-up shirt and khakis.
Moments after, he smiled, and his family walked out of the courtroom.

Jearicka's family members bowed their heads and hugged. On his way out of the
courthouse, Jearicka's father Jearick stared at a photo of his daughter, his eyes red. He fought for breath.

"My baby can rest now, but we still hurt," Jearick Mack said. "We're at ease right now, but we still hurt."
Mack said he felt bad for Copeland's family.

"Losing a child, it's not like losing a mom or dad or cousin or sister. You
lose your own, it means more to you than you expect it to," he said. "By
them losing their son to the prison system, I know what that feels like."

Mack said he's seen his share of violence and he stressed the importance of taking care of children in the community,
"We need to do something," he said. "These children are falling by the wayside."

Before they went into the courtroom, Jearicka's family got in a circle and prayed, and they leaned on each other on the way out.
"The wounds may heal, but the scars are still there," Jearicka's father said. "No matter what, the scars are always there."

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20121005/articles/121009749?p=3&tc=pg

Copeland sentenced to life for 2011 shooting death of 15-year-old


Murder defendant Dontavious Copeland, 18, enters courtroom 3C of
the Alachua County Criminal Justice Center in Gainesville for his
sentencing on Tuesday.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012 at 4:59 p.m.

Lushon Copeland pleaded with a judge Tuesday afternoon to have mercy on her son, Dontavious Copeland, when he sentenced him for the murder last year of Jearicka Mack.




"He has a child that he has never touched nor has he ever smelt her little toes,” she said,
asking that he be sent to a facility that allows minors to visit.

Circuit Judge Mark W. Moseley listened, then sent the 18-year-old to prison for
life with a mandatory sentence of 25 years. Copeland was found guilty
of first-degree murder on Oct. 5.

Lushon Copeland cried loudly and rushed out of the courtroom.

“It’s a tragic case, but this kind of activity simply cannot be tolerated by
our society, and the reasons are apparent. I don’t need to comment.
There is a 15-year-old child that is dead,” Moseley said.

Jearicka was shot in May 2011 outside a birthday party at the Lion’s Club on
North Main Terrace in Gainesville. The Gainesville Police Department
said Jearicka was an innocent bystander outside the club after the party
ended when fights broke out between rival gang members.

Her father, Jearick Mack, said on Tuesday he believed justice was served
but that he is forever scarred by the loss of his daughter.

“It ain’t gonna never be right. That was my whole life right there,” he said.

Lushon Copeland told the judge she understood that her son should be punished, but she hoped to have a relationship with him.
Copeland dabbed his eyes briefly while his mother spoke.

She said she felt for the victim’s family, for her own family and for anyone who has been affected by the tragedy.

“We always want to be there for him, as any other family would want to be there for their loved ones,” she said

Jearicka’s grandmother Mildred Fisher said it was beautiful that Copeland’s mother spoke in support of him.

“I am glad they supported him, and her (Copeland’s mother) outburst, that touched my heart. I just think, she loves him,” Fisher said.

Debbie Snyder, victim advocate for the State Attorney’s Office, read two
letters to the judge, one from Mack’s mother and the other from her grandmother.

“Sometimes the feeling of losing my grandchild becomes so overwhelming, so
oppressive that it literally takes my breath away,” Mack’s grandmother Sabrina Cook wrote.

Mack’s mother, Trenesha Thomas, wrote about heartbreak, listing the things
about her daughter that she missed the most: the hot wings she used to
cook, the way she danced, her infectious smile.

“She was truly just beginning to enjoy her teenage years,” she wrote.

Thomas said she had yet to see Copeland show remorse for her death.

“The “nothing to sob over’’ for him is something that wakes me up in tears
out of my sleep because to me she was something, she was my child,” her
letter said, referring to a comment Copeland made earlier to investigators about the shooting.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20121023/ARTICLES/121029872?p=2&tc=pg