Verdict: 2 Dubose Brothers Also Guilty

Older Brother Convicted Thursday Of 1st-Degree Murder In 8-Year-Old's Death

POSTED: Friday, February 19, 2010
UPDATED: 6:43 pm EST February 19, 2010

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Less than 24 hours after Rasheem Dubose was found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 8-year-old Dreshawna Davis, his two younger brothers also learned they were guilty of murder.

Late Friday morning, Judge Page Haddock opened verdicts against Tajuan and Terrell Dubose he ordered sealed more than three weeks earlier when the first trial of Rasheem Dubose ended in a mistrial.

The three brothers were accused of firing 29 shots into the home of Dreshawna's grandmother in July 2006 in an act of retaliation, targeting Dreshawna's uncle, who had robbed and humiliated one of the brothers earlier that day.

While prosecutors maintained that the Dubose brothers fired into the house trying to kill Dreshawna's uncle, Willie Davis Jr., defense attorneys said others also had motive to kill, including a cousin.

In addition to murder, the separate juries also found the three guilty of firing into an occupied dwelling.

The state has said they intend to seek the death penalty against each of them, but immediately after the verdict was read, court remained in session to discuss motions, including one by Tajaun Dubose's attorney asking that he not face the death penalty because he fired the fewest shots. That motion was denied.

Attorneys for both Terrell and Tajuan Dubose asked for separate sentencing hearings, but that request was also denied.

State Attorney Angela Corey's office told Channel 4's Vickie Pierre that no plea agreements were considered in this case because they death penalty should be an option for the punishment of the Dubose brothers.

That's a decision supported by Dreshawna's paternal grandmother, Carlas Washington.
"I feel they should have the death penalty because they took my grandbaby, so they need to go, too," Washington said.

A sentencing hearing for Terrell and Tajuan Dubose is scheduled for March 2. A hearing for Rasheem Dubose is scheduled for March 9.

Shalindell Wilson, the Duboses' mother, said the trial should not have been held in Duval County.

"It was not a fair trial from the beginning," Wilson said. "I mean, these people is from Jacksonville. They from Jacksonville, and they should've had moved this thing somewhere else where nobody else don't know."