Inset: Jerome Parker from the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office. Background: Copeland Park location where Parker ended Nasir Delaney-Rowland’s life (Google Maps).
A 31-year-old Florida man has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting a 20-year-old in a park. He claimed the act was a punishment after accusing the young man of stealing a packet of socks.
On Tuesday, Judge Lyann Goudie of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit ruled that Jerome Alexander Parker would serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole in a state prison for the 2024 murder of Nasir Delaney-Rowland, as announced by authorities.
The sentence was handed down after a jury found Parker guilty on one count of second-degree murder with the use of a firearm.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Tampa Police officers responded to reports of a shooting around 7:15 p.m. on August 9, 2024, at Copeland Park, located in the 11000 block of North 15th Street. Upon their arrival, they found the victim on the ground with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to his head.
Emergency personnel rushed the victim to Tampa General Hospital where he was later declared dead. An autopsy confirmed that he had been shot in the head, with the bullet causing a fatal brain injury.
At the time of the shooting, Delaney-Rowland was with a female friend who witnessed his murder and provided a statement to police.
A witness recounted that she and the victim met friends at the park entrance. While walking further into the park, Delaney-Rowland noticed a package of new black socks on the ground. He picked them up, and the group continued walking toward the picnic area in the park.
As they were walking, a man rode up to the group on a bike “yelling at the victim and accusing him of stealing his package of socks.”
“[Parker] quickly dismounted the bicycle he was riding and aggressively approached the victim while reaching into his waistband area for what appeared to be a firearm,” the affidavit said. “In response, the victim punched this male subject in the face causing him to fall to the ground.”
The witness told investigators that the victim then threw the package of socks to the ground, which Parker picked up. Afterward, the witness said she and the others — including the victim — continued to walk toward the picnic shelter.
“As they did so, [Parker] got up from the ground and once again aggressively approached the victim while brandishing a dark colored pistol,” the affidavit said. “According to the witness the male subject in question threatened to shoot the victim and ‘Teach (the victim) a lesson’ while pointing the pistol at the victim’s head. In response, the victim began to ask other occupants of the picnic shelter to help him by telling the unidentified male subject to stop pointing a gun at him. According to the witness, after no one came to the victim’s aid, the victim once again punched the subject with the gun in the face. Upon doing so, the subject with the gun fired a single shot to the back of the victim’s head causing the victim to immediately fall to the ground.”
After shooting the victim, Parker left the package of socks and took a different bicycle than the one he arrived on to flee the area. DNA recovered from the scene came back as a positive match for Parker, who was initially charged with first-degree murder before being convicted on the lesser second-degree charge.
