A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison after a Marion County jury found him guilty of the 2024 premeditated murder of an Ocala resident.
On Thursday, June 18, jurors delivered a guilty verdict against Blayze Jurrien White for premeditated first-degree murder with a firearm in the death of 24-year-old Derrick Lysander Brown Jr.
Following the verdict, White was immediately sentenced to life in prison.
The conviction stems from a shooting that occurred nearly two years ago on Sunday, June 23, 2024. At around 11:25 p.m. that night, Ocala Police Department officers responded to a residence in the 2800 block of NE 8th Terrace.
Upon arrival, emergency personnel found Brown, known to family and friends as DJ, unresponsive on a couch with a gunshot wound to his head. He was transported to HCA Florida Ocala Hospital, where he died from his injuries.
A witness at the scene reported hearing a round of gunshots, getting two small children to safety, and then finding Brown lifeless after crawling into the living room.
During the initial scene investigation, officials observed that the living room window of the apartment had been shot through multiple times. Crime scene technicians recovered spent shell casings, shoe prints, and vehicle tire treads in the grass behind the building.
Surveillance footage and license plate reader data subsequently identified a Hyundai Elantra speeding out of the area, which investigators discovered had been rented by White using the TURO platform.
GPS tracking data from the vehicle led police to execute a search warrant at a residence off Anthony Road, where they located a firearm matching the caliber of the casings and bullets recovered from the crime scene.
Investigators learned that the shooting was the result of a rivalry between White’s gang and a local gang to which Brown was loosely connected. Authorities determined that multiple individuals were involved in planning the shooting, leading to the arrest of White and two co-defendants.
White was taken into custody on December 17, 2024. He has remained incarcerated since then.
While White has been convicted and sentenced, the legal cases against the remaining co-defendants are still pending, according to court records.