JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The evidence against two men accused of murdering a 13-year-old heading home from football practice includes dozens of hours of surveillance footage and interviews with the accused’s friends and family.
Marcel Johnson and Kentrevious Garard are charged with killing Prince Holland last December. The boy was shot and killed while riding in his coach’s SUV, a collateral death in what police say is an ongoing gang war. Holland’s coach and an 11-year-old teammate were also injured in the barrage of gunfire at the intersection of New Kings and Moncrief roads. Two other passengers – ages 14 and 15 – were not injured.
Johnson and Garard have pleaded not guilty.
First Coast News requested the evidence in the case, and the State Attorney’s Office on Thursday offered a glimpse at what that includes. Among hours of interviews and videos is a police interview with Johnson’s sister. She tells investigators her brother was upset after a shooting involving his friend.
“I see my friend got shot, I got shot,” she recalled Johnson saying.
She also told police, “he wants to be a rapper” and goes by the name "Spazzsobrokee."
Johnson has been featured on songs with a Jacksonville rapper known as 320Popout (real name Joshua Holmes), who was killed in March 2022 at an apartment complex in Arlington. Johnson appears in one of 320 Popout's music videos playing the role of a "shooter."
Police say Holland's death was the result of tension between rival street gangs '3' and '320.'"
"This shooting was a culmination of escalating violence between two rival street groups," Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a press conference announcing Johnson's arrest, adding that the shooting was "pre-planned" and "targeted."
Police have not said who they believe the intended target of the shooting was.
Johnson’s grandmother, who owned the car police say was used in the shooting, was also interviewed by police, as was another woman related to a witness in the case. She told police after the murder of a child in a gang battle, she said, “Y’all killing babies. They [killers] just want to take a life. Y’all did this, what’s going to happen next?”
No trial date has been set for Johnson. Jury selection in the case against Garard, who police say was the shooter, is scheduled for Aug. 7
