MILWAUKEE – A plea deal has been reached for the two then-teens accused in the fatal shooting of a man at JJ Fish and Chicken in Milwaukee in January 2023.

Javontae Jones pleaded guilty on Wednesday, Aug. 14 to a charge of first-degree reckless homicide. By doing so, Jones avoids a trial. Jones is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 2. 

Jones was accused along with his cousin, Jeffrey Coleman in the Jan. 1, 2023 shooting at the restaurant, court filings say. Coleman pleaded guilty on Monday, Aug. 19 to first-degree reckless homicide. He is set to be sentenced on Oct. 31.

Case details

According to a criminal complaint, Milwaukee police responded to the JJ Fish and Chicken restaurant near 33rd and Villard on Jan. 1, 2023, to investigate a homicide. Investigators found the victim on the floor at the restaurant – he was pronounced deceased.

32nd and Villard shooting; Milwaukee’s first homicide of 2023

Detectives spotted numerous cartridge casings, bullets and bullet strikes in the restaurant. Outside in the parking lot, they located a deformed bullet and three cartridge casings.

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The criminal complaint indicates exterior surveillance video was recovered from the restaurant. It shows a person get out of a vehicle and walk into the restaurant. Two other persons from a second car did the same. After about a minute, all three persons are seeing running out of the restaurant, getting into cars, and fleeing the scene. One of the persons is seen firing a gun – “based upon an observed muzzle flash,” the complaint says.

Surveillance video from inside the restaurant shows a man enter the restaurant and approach the counter with a gun tucked into his waistband, the complaint says. About a minute later, the victim and another person walked into the restaurant – and seconds after that, two other persons walk into the restaurant. A gun was pulled by the first person who entered the restaurant, and he “fires” at the victim and the person he was with, the complaint says. That person then pulled a gun – and he fired toward the front door. The complaint says two people “then fire numerous gunshots toward each other.”

32nd and Villard shooting; Milwaukee’s first homicide of 2023

After this incident, detectives were made aware that multiple juvenile shooting victims were en route to the emergency department at Children’s Wisconsin. Among them was the defendant, Jones, the complaint says.

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Investigators later identified Jones via fingerprints, the complaint says. Two other persons also identified Jones from a photo array.  An officer later identified Coleman from a surveillance image of the shooting.