Man guilty in Cox student's murder, faces 33 years

VIRGINIA BEACH

A jury on Thursday recommended a man spend 33 years in prison for the 2009 killing of a Cox High School senior during a robbery attempt outside a child's play center.

Isiah Jones, 18, was waiting to pick up his girlfriend from her job at the former Jumpin' Monkey on the evening of April 10 when a gunman walked up to Jones' car and demanded the long silver chain around his neck. Jones did what he was told, according to testimony during a two-day trial in Circuit Court this week. But the gunman fired one shot, striking Jones in the chest. Jones died at the scene.

Police charged Sheldon Swilling, now 22, with first-degree murder, attempted robbery and two counts of using a firearm in a felony. Prosecutors said Swilling admitted to killing Jones in a taped interview with police played at the trial. Swilling also told an acquaintance he thought he had killed someone in a car while trying to rob him, a witness testified.

Swilling's attorney, Afshin Farashahi, said investigators manipulated his client and "put words into Sheldon's mouth."

A classmate of Jones', Daniel Suruga, witnessed the shooting from the passenger seat but was unable to identify the killer, Farashahi pointed out. That, along with a lack of physical evidence tying Swilling to the crime, cast too much doubt for a conviction, the attorney argued.

Jurors deliberated for several hours Thursday before returning guilty verdicts on each of the four charges.

Afterward, Jones' mother described having to decide whether to bury her son or have him cremated.

"One minute my baby is alive and happy, and the next minute, I am sitting in a truck holding an urn with his ashes," Tami Jones testified. "The day starts with tears in my eyes and a pit in my stomach. That bullet went in his heart but it landed in mine."

Jones was a talented member of a cheerleading team and planned to major in communications at Old Dominion University, the mother said. He wanted to work for his father, marry his longtime girlfriend, Ashley Dionisio, and have twin girls who looked just like her.

"I will never get over his loss," Tami Jones said.

Swilling faced a minimum of 30 years in prison on the convictions. Farashahi told jurors that was long enough.

Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Colin Stolle asked for a life sentence.

Jones was "a loving son, a brother, a boyfriend, a high school senior," Stolle said. "In just 10 seconds, all of that was taken away... for what? A necklace."

Formal sentencing is set for Dec. 13.

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5131, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com