Prosecutors claimed a woman coordinated travel and lodging that laid the groundwork for the calculated ambush that killed Jacksonville rapper Julio Foolio outside a Tampa hotel during his birthday weekend.
Alicia Andrews, 22, sat in a Hillsborough County courtroom as prosecutors detailed her alleged role in the June 2024 killing of Foolio, whose real name was Charles Jones. According to the state, Andrews helped set the trap that ended in a barrage of bullets and the rapper’s death.
“She’s sending that on Friday night — ‘Hey, could I book an Airbnb in Tampa?’” prosecutors told jurors during opening statements. That message, they said, was the first move in a deadly chain of events.
Investigators used cell phone data to track Andrews and her boyfriend, Isaiah Chance, as they drove roughly 200 miles from Jacksonville to Tampa. “Their cell phones are tracking, hitting towers as they travel in unison all the way down I-75 heading directly into Tampa,” prosecutors said.
Surveillance and phone records showed Andrews’ device leaving the Airbnb hours before the shooting and later pinging near the Holiday Inn where Foolio was staying. Four armed men would later open fire at that location, killing the rapper in what prosecutors called a meticulously timed attack.
“They moved rapidly into their pre-planned positions, into their firing locations, and then they immediately unleashed a hellish onslaught, a precisely coordinated violence of action, sending a barrage, a wall of hot lead crashing into the only barriers between Charles Jones living and Charles Jones dying,” the prosecution said.
Authorities believe the killing was tied to a long-running feud between Jacksonville’s ATK and KTA crews. Foolio, linked to KTA, had been involved in public disputes with rival rappers for years and had previously survived multiple attempts on his life.
State Witness 18, whose identity is protected for safety reasons, testified Thursday that she had known defendant Alicia Andrews for more than a decade and once considered her one of her best friends.
The witness said she spoke with Andrews frequently and was familiar with her relationship with co-defendant Isaiah Chance, whom Andrews had dated for two to three years before the rapper’s 2024 killing. She confirmed Andrews knew Chance was affiliated with Jacksonville’s ATK gang.
Prosecutors presented text messages exchanged between the two women in January 2021, which discussed the ongoing feud between rival Jacksonville gangs tied to slain rapper Julio Foolio, whose real name was Charles Jones.
The witness said the pair talked about rappers and gang members involved in the dispute, including how “people like Jones recruit people willing to die for them.” In those same messages, Andrews reportedly expressed hostility toward the rapper, writing, “he need to die.”
The testimony connects Andrews to gang-related discussions years before Foolio’s shooting outside a Tampa hotel in June 2024, a case prosecutors say stemmed from the deadly rivalry between Jacksonville factions ATK and KTA.
Andrews’ defense team pushed back on the state’s narrative, arguing that the phone data doesn’t prove she had any role in the murder. They said her trip to Tampa was solely to spend time with Chance and had nothing to do with any criminal plan.
Andrews is charged with first-degree murder along with four co-defendants: Chance, Sean Gathright, Davion Murphy and Rashad Murphy. She is the first to stand trial in the case.
Foolio’s killing drew widespread attention across Florida’s Hip-Hop scene and added another chapter to the ongoing violence between Jacksonville rap factions. The trial continues this week.