A Hammond man was sentenced to 55 years Tuesday for killing a man meeting him to buy drugs.
Davon Jones, 20, had a hung jury in July on murder and a firearms enhancement.
However, he was convicted of murder in perpetration of a robbery, robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, armed robbery and robbery.
Jones was accused of killing Amarion Holmes, 20, on April 9, 2022.
At trial, Deputy Prosecutors Cole Galloway and Jacob Brandewie argued technological evidence — cellphone location data and Facebook records — put Jones at the scene for a drug deal that led to Holmes’ death.
Defense lawyers Amanda Hires and Kerry Connor said the cellphone data was not a “pinpoint” on a map, and various messages were open to interpretation.
Hires said Tuesday it was an “inconsistent verdict” and they would ask for the minimum 45 years to give Jones an opportunity as much as possible to come out of prison as a “functional adult.”
Holmes was found shot in the head and arm inside his car around 4:30 p.m. in an alley on the 800 block of Drackert Street. Jones lived about a block away. He was transported to the University of Chicago where he was pronounced dead at 6 p.m.
Witnesses told police the car was in the alley for minutes when a single gunshot rang out.
From Holmes’ Facebook account, police believed he was there to meet Jones over a drug buy, the affidavit states.
Jones deleted Holmes off his Facebook account five minutes after the shooting and left the next day to stay in Wisconsin for two weeks, charges state. A month later, he deleted his Facebook account.
“My Facebook was hacked, that’s why I deleted my (account),” Jones said in a jailhouse call.
mcolias@post-trib.com
