JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville officer who shot and killed FAMU student Jamee Johnson, sparking national outrage, has pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving a minor.
Josue Garigga, 34, was arrested in March 2024 on charges of enticing a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity. He faces a minimum of 10 years in prison and will be required to register as a sex offender, with a five-year term of supervised release. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Garigga killed Johnson during a traffic stop in 2019 -- the State Attorney's Office concluded the shooting was justified, but his family argued bodycam footage showed no evidence of that.
Then in 2023, Garriga was one of the officers responsible for the brutal arrest of Le'Keian Woods, which was spread on the internet in a viral video. Woods's gruesome mugshot after the arrest, where his eyes were completely swollen shut, sparked outrage in the city. Garriga also made headlines as part of a group chat featuring racist messages which were shared with local news outlets. And he was involved in a fatal officer-involved shooting in Putnam County in 2015.
Garriga was not punished in any of these cases, though the city of Jacksonville paid Johnson's family $200,000 in settlement money.
He was originally arrested in Clay County on March 27, 2024, on charges of unlawful activity with certain minors, lewd touching of certain minors, travelling to meet a minor for unlawful sexual activity, unlawful use of a two-way communication device to commit a felony, and transmission of harmful material to a minor. "Harmful material" is defined in Florida statutes as content that depicts nudity, sexual conduct or sexual excitement.
A press release from the Department of Justice says Garriga met the victim, a 17-year-old girl, at church in 2023.
They said until March 7, 2024, he pursued a sexual relationship with her, including "reaching up the child victim's skirt while she worked serving coffee before church service."
At some point, he used his JSO-issued cell phone and an "undercover" Instagram account to reach out to the victim in order to get her phone number.
The Clay County Sheriff's Office found 305 interactions between Garriga and the victim on her cell phone.
The DOJ says Garriga video chatted the victim over FaceTime over 120 times, including while she was showering.
He used his JSO work vehicle to visit her neighborhood to "engage in sexual contact" with her. On another occasion, he met with her at a coffee shop in Clay County and enticed her to his JSO vehicle, "where he engaged in unlawful sexual activity with the child victim and refuse to let her leave until she performed oral sex on him," the DOJ said.
Shooting of Jamee Johnson
Garriga shot and killed Jamee Johnson in 2019. Johnson was 22 years old at the time.
He pulled Johnson over for a seatbelt violation.
The State Attorney's Office ruled Garriga was justified in shooting Johnson. Black Lives Matter activists, and activists against police brutality, disagreed, protesting in Jacksonville and the state's capital.
Jamee's family sued Garriga and then-Sheriff Mike Williams, contesting Garriga's story of what happened that day.
While Garriga argued Johnson was reaching for a weapon, his family argued bodycam footage showed no evidence of that. Their attorney said Johnson's autopsy didn't show the bullet trajectory matching Garriga's story.
The body camera footage showed Johnson pleading for his life after Garriga shot him four times.
In November 2023, before the suit could go to trial, the City of Jacksonville settled with Johnson's family, paying out $200,000. Waters said he would have rather taken the case before a jury and disagreed with this decision.
Viral arrest of Le'Keian Woods
In late September 2023, a video of the brutal arrest of 23-year-old Le'Keian Woods went viral on social media. Woods's family said the incident bore "a striking similarity" to the traffic stop where Johnson died -- Woods was also stopped for a seatbelt violation.
A gruesome mugshot of Woods made rounds online, his eyes swollen shut when he was booked into Duval County Jail. When Woods was later transferred to another jail, with his eyes less swollen, his eyes were filled with blood.
Garriga was the one who called officers to the scene. He said he saw Woods engaged in suspicious behavior at a gas station before he got into his car, so he followed him.
Garriga noticed the driver of the car was not wearing a seatbelt, giving officers license to pull Woods over.
After the car was stopped for the alleged seatbelt violation, Woods fled from the traffic stop and was tased twice before falling to the ground. Police records say Woods strenuously resisted attempts by officers to handcuff him, and was struck at least 17 times, including punches and “unintentional knee strikes” to his face. Garriga was named as one of the officers involved in the brutal arrest, and can be seen in bodycam footage.
Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said all of the officers were cleared.
"There was force used by the arresting detectives, and yes, that force is ugly, but the reality is that all force, all violence is ugly," he said, but qualified that ugly does not mean unlawful.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund condemned the arrest in a lengthy statement. Protestors gathered in front of City Hall for several days after the arrest.
Gang unit group chat
Garriga was a member of a group chat where seemingly-racist tweets and texts were exchanged by members of the JSO Gang Unit.
All of the officers in the chat were cleared in an internal investigation by JSO.
In the thread, which was started by Sgt. Doug Howell, officers discussed an NFL ceremony honoring Johnson. After several officers bemoaned the ceremony, Garriga wrote: “Goes to show no matter how wrong they are, they still will be recognized just because they are Black.”
A summary of the messages investigated by internal affairs can be found by clicking here.
Shooting of Andrew Anthony Williams
In 2015, while working for the Putnam County Sheriff's Office, Garriga was one of four deputies who fired on Andrew Anthony Williams during a drug bust.
Williams was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after.