A Gary man was charged with murder Sunday for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.
Ralph Stokes II, 23, is formally charged in the Oct. 5 death of Jimmijion Bailey, 25. Police found his body was found on the 2300 block of Clay Street Friday. He is in custody, held without bail.
“It was just pure jealousy,” his sister Jakyla Bailey said Tuesday.
He was a “loving” father of seven, ranging from ages 6 to two-month-old twins, she said. He was close to his mom, loved his family and rapping. He only started dating the woman about three weeks earlier, she said. He didn’t know Stokes.
Bailey’s mother called police after he stopped responding to her calls and texts around 6:43 p.m. Oct. 5, documents show.
His family tracked his cell phone location first to Woodlake Village Apartments on the 500 block of Vermillion Place. His mother headed there to talk to the woman he just started dating.
The woman said she was looking for him, too.
Then, Bailey’s mother tracked his car to 9th Avenue and Roosevelt Street. She found it there — off the road, still running with the maroon Chrysler 200 still in drive, she told police.
Investigators were tipped off on Oct. 10 that Bailey was shot inside the girlfriend’s apartment. His body was moved to the bathroom for several hours. His car was taken to 9th and Roosevelt to “throw off the investigation.” The girlfriend changed her number after Bailey was killed, the affidavit states.
When police executed a search warrant on Oct. 11 in the girlfriend’s apartment, they were hit with “an overpowering chemical odor” and saw “several lighter fluid bottles” on the floor.
Some flooring in the hallway was “melted.”
The apartment appeared to be mostly cleared out — aside from a bed, then air mattress and kids clothes in another room. In the main bedroom, cops saw what appeared to be several spots of dried blood, and a large “reddish colored stain” under a blanket on the mattress.
When detectives cut through the mattress, it looked blood-soaked, like someone tried to torch the apartment by lighting it on fire, the affidavit states.
Police learned bits of the conversation after up to two shots were fired.
“Why would you do that with our child present,” the ex-girlfriend screamed.
“That’s who I am,” Stokes responded.
He later came back to the apartment in a Ford Flex, according to the affidavit.
When police found Bailey’s body on Oct. 11 with drones, he was decapitated with his arms and knees bound with “black tape.”
Jakyla Bailey was clear in an interview that her family wanted the public to know the condition of her brother’s body.
“We’re not ashamed,” she said.
Two detectives went to the Stokes’ house on 700 block of Louisiana Street, where they found the Ford Flex, silver Infiniti and black Audi, his family’s vehicles.
License plate readers showed Bailey showed up to the apartment on Oct. 5. Later, his Chrysler 200 was driven off, followed by the black Audi toward 9th and Roosevelt, to ditch Bailey’s car, before the black car headed back to the apartment.
Then, the black Audi and Ford Flex head to the 2300 block of Clay Street, where Bailey’s body was later found.
Stokes’ mother told Gary Police he moved to Indianapolis and hadn’t lived in Gary for over a year. She denied going to the apartments.
Police pulled Stokes over in the Flex with the ex-girlfriend’s relative, who refused to talk to cops without a lawyer. They impounded the vehicle.
Stokes told cops it was self-defense. He and the woman broke up in July after seven years together, he said. They had a toddler. He gave the woman the deposit for the apartment.
He said he didn’t have a cell phone or car, but gave them several social media and iCloud profiles.
The ex-girlfriend told him to bring over a bed set that day to help her set up the apartment. He was jealous, and didn’t know she was seeing someone else, claiming she hung out with “thugs” that intimidated him.
He was walking out of church on Oct. 5 when she called for help, without saying there was someone else there. Stokes told cops he walked into an “assassination.”
Stokes said he and the woman went outside, where he asked who the man was. He felt it was “disrespectful” for Bailey to “stay there.”
Stokes told cops he thought Bailey lifted his shirt for a gun, so he shot him, then left the apartment, driving south on I-65 to “clear his mind.”
Jakyla Bailey disputed Stokes’ account.
Her brother just stopped by to see the woman. Cell phone apps showed Bailey was only there “five minutes” when Stokes walked in “behind him,” she said.
“Ralph was just upset she had moved on,” she said.
When Bailey disappeared, his family took the search into their own hands.
Last week, two men were charged with breaking into the girlfriend’s apartment and intimidating a man with questions about Bailey’s disappearance. Jackie Demarco James, 27, and Teajawon Jashon Pellebon are charged with criminal confinement, a Level 3 felony; intimidation, a Level 5 felony; and residential entry, a Level 6 felony.
The search “was very hard,” Jakyla Bailey said. They went into woods, ponds, lakes, and used a search dog. We were hoping “we didn’t come across anything gruesome,” but wanted to find him. They shared location data, camera footage they obtained with police.
“We’re the ones who put everything together,” she said. “We just really worked hard to solve the case ourselves.”
Of the handful of siblings, two other brothers were in prison, she said. They’ve been left “heartbroken” and haven’t yet shared what happened with Bailey’s children. Her brother had a “very bright” future. He did all kinds of work — as a barber, mechanic, and cut grass.
They wanted answers from Stokes’ family. A relative confronted Stokes right after Bailey went missing.
“Where’s (he)?,” the relative said. Stokes “never made eye contact.”