Florida – A 31-year-old Florida man will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing a 20-year-old, shooting him in a local park to “teach the victim a lesson” after accusing him of stealing a package of socks.
Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Judge Lyann Goudie on Tuesday sentenced Jerome Alexander Parker to life without parole in a state correctional facility for the 2024 killing of Nasir Delaney-Rowland, authorities said.
The sentence came after a jury convicted Parker of second-degree murder with the use of a firearm.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Tampa Police officers responded around 7:15 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2024, to a shooting report at Copeland Park in the 11000 block of North 15th Street. When first responders arrived, they found the victim on the ground with an apparent gunshot wound to the head.
Emergency medical personnel rushed the victim to Tampa General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy confirmed he had been shot in the head, with the bullet passing through his skull and into his brain.
At the time of the shooting, Delaney-Rowland was with a female friend who witnessed the murder and later gave a statement to police.
The witness said she and the victim met some friends at the park entrance. As they walked deeper into the park, Delaney-Rowland “observed a package of new black socks lying on the ground.” He picked up the socks, and the group continued east toward the park’s picnic shelter.
While they were walking, a man rode up on a bike, “yelling at the victim and accusing him of stealing his package of socks.”
“[Parker] quickly dismounted the bicycle he was riding and aggressively approached the victim while reaching into his waistband area for what appeared to be a firearm,” the affidavit said. “In response, the victim punched this male subject in the face causing him to fall to the ground.”
The witness told investigators that the victim then threw the package of socks to the ground, which Parker picked up. Afterward, the witness said she and the others, including the victim, continued toward the picnic shelter.
“As they did so, [Parker] got up from the ground and once again aggressively approached the victim while brandishing a dark colored pistol,” the affidavit said. “According to the witness, the male subject in question threatened to shoot the victim and ‘Teach (the victim) a lesson’ while pointing the pistol at the victim’s head. In response, the victim began asking other occupants of the picnic shelter to help him by telling the unidentified male subject to stop pointing a gun at him. According to the witness, after no one came to the victim’s aid, the victim once again punched the subject with the gun in the face. Upon doing so, the subject with the gun fired a single shot to the back of the victim’s head, causing the victim to immediately fall to the ground.”
After shooting the victim, Parker left the package of socks and fled the area on a different bicycle than the one he had arrived on. DNA recovered from the scene matched Parker, who was initially charged with first-degree murder before being convicted of the lesser second-degree charge.
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