Jury Convicts Man of First-Degree Murder in Shooting Outside North Marion Middle School Awards Ceremony; Judge Imposes Life

A Marion County jury on Thursday, Oct. 8, found Roderick Kelvin Watson Jr. guilty of premeditated first-degree murder in the 2024 shooting death of a father in the parking lot of North Marion Middle School, where families had gathered for an end-of-year student awards ceremony. Circuit Judge Barbara Kissner-Kwatkosky sentenced Watson, 36, to life in prison following the verdict, according to the Office of the State Attorney for Florida's Fifth Judicial Circuit, which announced the outcome on Oct. 9.

The victim, Joseph James Juarez Coles, was 32. He was shot on the evening of May 22, 2024, outside the middle school in Citra, a rural community in northern Marion County, in what deputies described at the time as a dispute over which parent would take his children home. Two of his children attended the school, according to reports at the time of the shooting.

The case is one of the more closely watched Marion County homicide prosecutions of the past two years because of where it happened: on a public school campus, during a school event, with students, parents and staff nearby.

What prosecutors told the jury

According to the State Attorney's Office account of the trial, Juarez Coles had been arguing with another person over a custody matter when Watson intervened. Witnesses testified that Juarez Coles turned to walk away before Watson shot him several times. Prosecutors said Watson then struck and kicked Juarez Coles after he fell to the ground.

Deputies who arrived found Juarez Coles with gunshot wounds, and he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The 2026 account of the trial describes four gunshot wounds when deputies found him; the 2024 arrest affidavit, as reported by FOX 35 Orlando at the time, said detectives counted six wounds, to his abdomen, armpit, right bicep, collarbone, and upper and middle back.

Watson told investigators he acted in self-defense. Prosecutors said physical evidence and eyewitness statements contradicted that claim, and the jury rejected it. Assistant State Attorney Toby Hunt prosecuted the case.

"A school campus should be a place where children learn, achieve and celebrate their accomplishments," State Attorney Bill Gladson said in announcing the verdict. "This conviction holds the defendant accountable, and the life sentence imposed reflects the gravity of his crime."

A custody argument at an awards night

The shooting happened shortly after 6 p.m. on a Wednesday, while the awards ceremony was still underway inside the school. According to the arrest affidavit as described by FOX 35 in May 2024, Watson, then 34, was engaged to the mother of Juarez Coles' three children, and the three adults began discussing in the parking lot which parent the children would go home with. Juarez Coles wanted to take the children; their mother declined because a few days of the school year remained, the affidavit said.

The argument escalated. Witnesses told deputies they saw Watson shoot Juarez Coles and then beat him with his fists as he lay on the ground. One eyewitness account in the affidavit, as reported in 2024, said Juarez Coles was holding his daughter's hand when he was shot. A teenage witness told deputies she saw the shooting at close range.

Deputies recovered six spent 9mm shell casings in the parking lot, according to the affidavit. A handgun was found in Watson's car, and his fiancée told deputies the gun belonged to her and was usually kept in her vehicle, the affidavit said.

Watson told a school guidance counselor at the scene that he had shot Juarez Coles and surrendered to deputies without resistance, the affidavit said. At the sheriff's office, he claimed self-defense; deputies wrote that they found no evidence supporting that account.

From second-degree charge to first-degree conviction

The Marion County Sheriff's Office initially booked Watson on a charge of second-degree murder with a firearm. Two days after the shooting, on May 24, 2024, a judge ordered him held without bond. He remained in custody through trial.

Prosecutors ultimately took the case to trial as premeditated first-degree murder, a capital felony under Florida law. The difference matters: second-degree murder covers killings committed with a depraved mind but without a premeditated design, while a first-degree murder conviction requires the jury to find the killing was premeditated. Testimony that Juarez Coles was walking away when he was shot was central to the state's argument that Watson acted with intent rather than in a sudden fight or in self-defense.

In Florida, a person convicted of a capital felony who is not sentenced to death must be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Judge Kissner-Kwatkosky imposed the sentence immediately after the verdict, and the State Attorney's Office announcement described no separate penalty phase.

Reaction at the time

The killing drew wide attention in Marion County in 2024. Sheriff Billy Woods said after the arrest, "A senseless homicide is always upsetting to each of us," and said he had assigned every available detective to the case.

A sheriff's office spokesman said at the time there was no continuing threat to the public, and the agency added deputies at the school for the remaining days of the school year. A Marion County Public Schools spokesperson told FOX 35 that no students were involved in the shooting. One parent told the station she grabbed her daughters and ran to her car after hearing gunfire only feet away.

Why the verdict matters for Florida schools

The case did not involve a student, a school employee or a threat against the school, but it unfolded at exactly the kind of event schools across Florida hold every spring: an evening ceremony that brings families, including separated parents, onto campus at the same time. Florida law already makes it a crime to carry a firearm onto school grounds without authorization, and the state has spent heavily on school safety since the 2018 Parkland shooting, including requiring an armed safe-school officer at every public school.

Those measures are aimed largely at attacks on schools themselves. The North Marion Middle shooting showed a different risk: a personal dispute that turns violent in a school parking lot. Gladson framed the conviction in those terms, pointing to the campus as a place meant for children's celebrations rather than violence.

What's next

Watson will be transferred from the Marion County Jail to the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections to begin serving his life sentence. He has the right to appeal his conviction and sentence to Florida's Fifth District Court of Appeal, which hears appeals from Marion County. A notice of appeal must generally be filed within 30 days of sentencing under Florida's appellate rules.

The State Attorney's Office for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, which covers Marion, Lake, Sumter, Citrus and Hernando counties, has not announced any further proceedings in the case. Watson's trial attorneys have not publicly commented on the verdict.