A Marion County jury convicted Roderick Watson Jr., and the judge sentenced him to life.

A life term after a guilty verdict is the judgment on that count. It is not a second look at the self-defense claim the jury rejected. The State Attorney's Office says deputies found four gunshot wounds. Law & Crime, citing the arrest affidavit, says six. The office's release places the school "in Citrus." WFTV places it in Citra. The name on the office's release is Jaurez. Three other outlets spell it Juarez.

The Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office said in a release published Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, that a jury the evening before found Roderick Kelvin Watson Jr., 36, guilty of premeditated first-degree murder and that Circuit Judge Barbara Kissner-Kwatkosky then sentenced him to life in prison. WFTV reported the verdict was Thursday and used the same judge's name. WCJB, publishing Thursday night, reported the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and that a judge issued a life sentence the same afternoon, with a 25-year mandatory minimum and no credit for time served. The office's release states the life term and does not spell out that minimum. Law & Crime reported Sunday that the office said the jury convicted him of first-degree murder and that he was sentenced to life. The office spelled the man who was killed Joseph James Jaurez Coles and said he was 32. Law & Crime, WFTV, and WCJB spelled that name Juarez. The office's spelling is the one on the release. The other spelling is what those three outlets printed.

The office said the shooting was May 22, 2024, in the parking lot of North Marion Middle School after a student awards ceremony, and it placed the school "in Citrus." The same release also called it a school shooting in Ocala. WFTV reported the school is in Citra. Law & Crime repeated the office's "Citrus" and added that the school is about 25 miles south of Gainesville. The office said deputies found the victim with four gunshot wounds and that he was later pronounced dead. WFTV reported the same four wounds and that he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Law & Crime, citing a probable cause arrest affidavit, reported deputies found six gunshot wounds and recovered a gun in a car with the clip pulled back, which the affidavit treated as a sign the magazine had been emptied. Four and six are both in the public record. They are not the same number. The office's account of the wounds is the one attached to the conviction announcement. The affidavit number is the one from the arrest.

The office said Coles had been in an argument related to a custody dispute with another person when Watson intervened, that witnesses said Coles turned to walk away, and that Watson shot him multiple times, then struck him with his fists, kicked him in the head, and walked away. WFTV reported the same sequence and said prosecutors reported that physical evidence and eyewitness statements contradicted Watson's claim that he shot in self-defense. The office said Watson told law enforcement he had shot in self-defense and, after he was in custody, refused a post-Miranda statement. Law & Crime reported the affidavit's account of the argument: Watson's fiancée and Coles shared two children who attended the school, Coles wanted to take the children to his home, and the mother said they needed to stay with her because two school days remained. Law & Crime reported she claimed Coles grabbed her arm and that Watson got out of a car to defend her, and that witnesses said Watson was the aggressor, that Coles saw a gun and turned to run, and that Watson grabbed him by the neck and shot him near point-blank in the upper back. Law & Crime reported Watson stayed, identified himself as the shooter, and took the stand. The children are not named here. Neither is their mother.

State Attorney Bill Gladson said, "A school campus should be a place where children learn, achieve, and celebrate their accomplishments – not a place where an adult illegally brings a firearm and uses it to take another person's life," and that the life sentence "reflects the gravity of his crime." The office said Assistant State Attorney Toby Hunt prosecuted the case. WFTV reported the same prosecutor. The guilty verdict is the jury's finding on the murder count. The life term is the sentence the judge imposed that day. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.