Two men have been sentenced in the brutal slaying of a South Sumter High School student.
Judge Mary P. Hatcher this week sentenced 20-year-old Javarre Latrell Johnson to life behind bars and 21-year-old Ba’Karri Juan’Ya Williams to 50 years in the Florida Department of Corrections.Â
Jurors in August delivered a verdict, finding both Johnson and Williams guilty of first-degree murder in the 2020 killing of 19-year-old David Bartholomew Lyons. Johnson and Williams were also found guilty of one count of armed robbery, and one count of possession of cannabis.
Lyons, a senior and football player at South Sumter High School, was also involved in the New Covenant United Methodist Church Mentor Program in The Villages. He died April 20, 2020 after he was shot near the intersection of Missouri Avenue and North Warfield Avenue in Wildwood.
Johnson, Williams, and a third man, Terrell Lynum of Ocala, lured Lyons into a car with the intention or robbing him.
At the time of the fatal shooting, Lynum was 20 and Johnson and Williams were juveniles. They initially attempted to claim that Lyons had been the victim of a drive-by shooting. But their story soon began to unravel.
Lynum pleaded guilty earlier this year and was sentenced to 25 years.
