The Lee County District Attorney’s Office has dismissed murder charges against 19-year-old Jackson Brown Chesney, who was previously accused in the February 2024 shooting death of 20-year-old Tyrese Marquel Wicker.
The fatal shooting occurred on the evening of February 24, 2024, at 800 Primrose Lane in Sanford. According to police, officers responded to reports of a shooting and found Wicker suffering from multiple gunshot wounds on the front porch of a residence. He was pronounced dead at the scene despite emergency medical efforts.
Chesney was arrested the following day and charged with murder. He was held without bond at Lee County Jail, awaiting trial but later bonded out. But as of this Wednesday, the case against him has been dropped.
Court documents listed “the investigation to date by law enforcement has demonstrated that the defendant was acting in self-defense when the shooting occurred.”
Victim’s Mother Post Victim Impact Statement on Facebook
During court proceedings, Shonda Moncrease, the mother of Tyrese Wicker, was not given the opportunity to read her victim impact statement in court. Instead, she shared it on Facebook.
“I stand before you today as a mother forever changed,” Moncrease said. “A mother whose world was shattered by the loss of her son—a young man whose life was stolen in an act of violence that should never have happened.”
In her statement, she expressed frustration with the justice system, particularly the lack of transparency and delays in receiving crucial information like the autopsy report.
“How can I begin to heal when the truth remains hidden?” she asked. “There are witnesses. There are voices who saw and heard what happened. And yet, I fear those voices are being ignored or silenced—not just by the defendant, but by a system that continues to minimize the weight of Black life and Black loss.”
Moncrease also voiced concern about the broader implications for the Sanford community and how dismissals like this may signal to others that violence can go unpunished.
“When you free those who kill without consequence, you don’t just fail us—you endanger us all,” she stated.
