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Jury Finds Tave Guilty Of 2005 Murder

27-Year-Old Faces Trials In 2nd Slaying, Rape

POSTED: Monday, October 6, 2008
UPDATED: 7:13 pm EDT October 6, 2008

More than a dozen police officers stood near Jonathan Tave as a Duval County jury read its verdict: guilty of first-degree murder.

After a week-long trial, Tave, 27, showed no emotion as he was convicted in the slaying of Cedric Henry during a carjacking attempt in January 2005.

The extra security was on hand because while Tave was behind bars waiting trial, he is accused of pulling a homemade knife and raping a female corrections officer.

"Make no mistake, Jonathan Tave is audacious, he's brazen and all of the evidence in this case supports that and it's evident when he shot the victims in broad daylight," Assistant State Attorney Lisa Nelson told the jury in her closing argument.

The jury deliberated for just over 90 minutes before convicting Tave.

"For three long years I've been waiting for this day to come," said the victim's father, Robert Henry. "Closure's not there ... There will never be one."

Cedric Henry
Prosecutors were not seeking the death penalty in this case, so Tave will face a mandatory sentence of life in prison, plus 225 years.

The jury in this case was not told about the 2004 slaying of William Tomblin or the 2008 rape of a corrections officer -- both charges still pending against Tave.

Tomblin's mother, Shelia Tomblin, was in the courtroom on Monday.

"It was very hard and it's still hard and it will always be hard because that was my one and only child," Tomblin told Channel 4's Laura Mazzeo. "I not only feel sorry for my own self and my son, I also feel for anybody who has to encounter that type of thing."

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