Left inset: Sequoya Bacon-Jones (WTXF/YouTube). Right inset: Isiah Roberts (Mercer County Correction Center). Background: The New Jersey courtyard bench where 9-year-old Sequoya Bacon-Jones was fatally shot by Isiah Roberts (WTXF/YouTube).
A New Jersey man is on his way to prison after firing at a perceived “family nemesis” during an online dispute and killing a 9-year-old girl who was playing outside with her brother and friends in front of her mother.
Isiah M. Roberts was 19 when Sequoya Bacon-Jones was killed in 2022. On Friday, he received an 18-year prison sentence for the death of the fourth grader from Trenton, who tried to flee after Roberts began shooting in the apartment courtyard.
According to Sequoya’s family and Roberts’ attorney, the deadly confrontation grew out of what they characterized as a “stupid” Facebook feud involving the intended target.
Roberts, now 23, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter in April. He made no statement during Friday’s sentencing hearing.
Sequoya’s mother, Sacha Bacon-Jones, told the court that she had chosen to forgive Roberts, according to NJ.com. “God told me to and it only feels right to, because if I don’t, I will harbor hatred and I don’t want to harbor hatred,” she said Friday.
Roberts’ lawyer, John W. Hartmann, previously described how the Facebook dispute escalated into gunfire, NJ.com reported.
Hartmann said Roberts’ mother and sister called him about the online conflict and instructed him to go to the Kingsbury apartments, where Sequoya was outside playing. A fight involving Roberts’ sister had reportedly broken out as a result of the Facebook dispute. When Roberts arrived, Hartmann said, he was told the identity of a “family nemesis” whom investigators later described as his intended target.
Roberts went into an apartment, obtained a 9 mm pistol and then spotted the man outside. Hartmann said Roberts believed the man was also armed. Roberts opened fire, hitting Sequoya as she ran away with her brother. Her mother was nearby and rushed to help, joined by other residents, before police arrived.
“He shot off two rounds first, everybody scattered, and then he shot off another four rounds and my daughter got hit,” Bacon-Jones said in a 2022 interview with Philadelphia CBS affiliate KYW.
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Bacon-Jones recalled running toward her daughter and finding her “covered in blood,” according to KYW. Sequoya, whom her mother called her “little girl,” was not crying but moaning and reaching for her. “I can’t believe what I’m looking at. It’s not really happening, but it’s really happening,” she said.
Hartmann has said Roberts never meant to shoot Sequoya, according to NJ.com. He acknowledged, however, that Roberts acted with a reckless disregard for human life, supporting the aggravated manslaughter charge.
After her daughter’s death, Bacon-Jones described the dispute behind the shooting as nothing more than “stupid Facebook stuff” during a news conference.
“Now all I have are memories I can’t make anymore,” the grieving mother said.
Under the terms of his plea agreement, Roberts faced a prison sentence ranging from 15 to 18 years, according to NJ.com.
At Roberts’ April plea hearing, Hartmann told the court that his client had taken responsibility and “really feels horrible about what occurred.”
The judge said Roberts needlessly intensified what had initially been a physical confrontation by bringing a firearm into the situation, according to NJ.com.
“The defendant exercised terrible judgment,” the judge said in handing down the sentence.
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