A Silver Springs man has been charged with murder in the stabbing death of another man inside a travel trailer.
Chase Tailor Jones, 21, was taken into custody last Friday after the victim, identified by Marion County sheriff’s deputies as Jeremiah Mills, was rushed to Ocala Regional Medical Center. Jones originally was charged with attempted second degree murder but after Mills succumbed to his wounds on Friday, the charge was upgraded to murder in the second degree.
According to witnesses, the incident started last Thursday night when Jones and Mills arrived at residence in the 16800 block of SE 9th Street. One witness said she was sleeping but woke up and saw that “Chase was acting very erratic” and she believed he was under the influence of narcotics, the report says, adding that the woman sent Jones’ girlfriend a text message asking her to come get him.
The woman said she went back to sleep but could hear Jones and Mills “bickering back and forth about something.” She said she didn’t know what the argument was about but she heard both men challenge each other to a fight, the report says.
The woman said she also heard Mills making comments like, “What am I doing wrong,” “Why am I bothering you” and “How am I looking at you” before Jones told him to leave.
Another witness reported that Jones “was acting weird” before he pulled out a black folding pocketknife and started playing with it. The witness said Jones was giving Mills “a strange look” and was directing the knife toward him. The witness said he told Jones to stop, asked for the knife and Jones went to hand it to him with the blade still exposed. The witness said he told Jones to put the blade away and then he handed it to him, the report says.
Jones then pulled out a second silver or gray folding pocketknife and started doing the same thing with it. The witness again asked him for the weapon and Jones handed it to him. The witness said he put both knifes on a countertop and told Jones he could have them back when he left, the report says, adding that Jones continued to look at Mills “as if he wanted to hurt him.”
The witness said he went outside to get a drink and heard a shuffling noise. When he looked back inside the house, Mills was holding his chest and said, “He stabbed me bro.” The witness added that Jones then looked toward the sky and said, “He told me to do it,” which he believed meant that Jones was saying Gold told him to stab Mills, the report says.
Jones then fled the scene but was later located and transported to the sheriff’s office for an interview. He admitted to deputies that he had a verbal altercation with Mills but “was very vague in his statement and appeared to be under the influence of drugs,” the report says, adding that Jones also admitted to stabbing Mills because he “jumped.”
After being questioned extensively about what “jumped” meant, Jones said Mills jumped at him. Jones also told deputies that he stabbed Mills because he believed he had sexually battered a friend. He said the friend had never told him that but he believed it because earlier they were all together and the friend and Mills “gave him a look,” which made him believe it was true.
Deputies noted that Jones “gave numerous inconsistent statements and was obviously fabricating portions of his statement,” the report says, adding that deputies found no evidence that Mills attacked Jones or that he acted in self-defense.
Jones is being held on $150,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in a Marion County courtroom on Dec. 18 at 9 a.m. He also spent time in the jail last March after being arrested for armed burglary, grand theft and grand theft of a firearm. Those charges were then dropped/abandoned in May, Marion County Court records show.