Mindy Osteen has pleaded no contest to five charges tied to the July 2025 killing of Christopher Jones, the 37-year-old father of her two young sons, who was shot while picking the children up from daycare.
STARKE, Fla. — A Bradford County woman accused of fatally shooting the father of her children outside a Starke daycare was sentenced Wednesday to 100 years in prison.
The Bradford County Clerk of Courts confirmed that 35-year-old Mindy Osteen accepted a plea agreement, entering no contest pleas to second-degree murder and four additional charges in the July 2025 death of Christopher Travis Jones, 37.
According to investigators, surveillance footage from July 25, 2025, showed Osteen arriving at Auntie Lili’s Child Care Center on West Washington Street as Jones was placing their two young boys into a vehicle. After Jones secured the children in the backseat and got into the driver’s seat, Osteen allegedly pulled a gun from a backpack and fired at him several times.
Authorities said Jones fled from the vehicle and ran through the daycare’s front entrance, calling for help. But the building had a second set of doors that was locked, leaving him unable to get farther inside. Investigators said Osteen followed him into the entry area and fired three more shots while he was trapped.
Jones sustained multiple gunshot wounds and later died at the hospital.
In total, Osteen received a 100-year prison sentence.
Court records also show Osteen had a lengthy criminal history spanning more than 10 years, with prior cases involving battery, drug possession, fraud and child cruelty.
In a past interview with First Coast News, Melanie Russo, Jones’ sister, said her brother had raised concerns about Osteen’s behavior during their relationship.
“You could see it through text messages, through stalking, through harassing and child pick up and drop offs,” she said, “He would call me sometimes and he’d say ‘I need help. I don’t know what to do. She’s doing this or she’s acting this way,’ and I would just give him the best advice I could, and the best advice was sweetheart, you gotta get out of that situation. Nobody expected it to get this far.”
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, there is help available.
You can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 24 hours a day.
For those in Bradford, Union and Alachua counties, Peaceful Paths provides help to those seeking to escape dangerous domestic situations.
