(Todd A. Smith)
Sean Gathright threw away a bright future because of his connection to the murder of rapper Julio Foolio, and that is extremely unfortunate.
What is more unfortunate is that many African-Americans know people like Sean Gathright, who came from good families and had a promising future.
However, they chose to throw away that future, trying to be a gangster or a thug, when they were anything but street.
Angela Wilson of The Root wrote, “Long before he stood in front of a judge in a drab orange jumpsuit, Sean Gathright was a young man defined by his hustle. He was an ambitious Jacksonville teenager who operated his own power-washing business, with an eye for photography, and plans to invest in real estate and vending machines. Then came June 23, 2024.
“Gathright was 18 years old when he allowed himself to be pulled into the lethal, unforgiving gravitational pull of a Jacksonville gang war. On that summer night, he joined a heavily armed, masked group tracking the rising 26-year-old rap star Charles Jones, better known as Julio Foolio, across Tampa during a weekend trip meant to celebrate the rapper’s birthday.
“Gathright was one of four gunmen who stepped out of a vehicle and opened fire on Jones’ car, killing him and wounding three others at a Holiday Inn. The murder was so brazen, Tampa Police Chief Bercaw said surveillance footage looked ‘like a movie.’”
As an educated African-American man, I know many professional African-American men, holding down jobs as lawyers, doctors and even astronauts.
Unfortunately, I also know several African-American males who were killers.
And of all the killers that I know personally, none of them were just stone-cold, heartless and ruthless.
They were all just people who got caught up in the moment and let their emotions ruin their lives, while ending the lives of others.
While I was never super close or best friends with the killers that I allude to, I did know them well enough to have hung out with them a time or two.
One brother, named Brandon, I met through my first cousin, while attending Southern University in Baton Rouge, La.
In the second semester of my freshman year, me, my cousin and Brandon rode up to Southern’s campus to complete registration for the spring semester.
At other schools, that might have been a quick process.
But at Southern in those days, it was an all-day event, if you were lucky.
Suffice it to say, I spent the entire day with my cousin and Brandon.
Back then, the spring semester started the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
That weekend, or on the actual holiday, Baton Rouge, La. had a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade.
While at the parade, Brandon got into it with another parade attendee and shot and killed the gentleman.
The whole ordeal was practically caught on video.
Therefore, there was no doubt that Brandon committed the murder.
Brandon was facing the death penalty if my memory serves me correctly.
But as my aunt always told me because she worked at the high school that Brandon and my cousin previously attended, his family had a decent amount of money.
Therefore, they fought tooth and nail to keep Brandon off death row.
For years, I would Google his name to see if anything had changed regarding his punishment.
But as years have gone by, his face and last name have faded from my memory.
Thankfully, the cautionary tale that became his life never faded, as I became aware of how a split second of anger could derail a great future.
What is really sad about Gathright’s situation is that he had plenty of time to come to his senses and remove himself from a situation that only had two possible outcomes: prison or the cemetery.
Brandon’s decision happened in a split second.
While that does not excuse his behavior, it makes Gathright’s decision that much more heartbreaking because he had time to remove himself from the situation before it ruined his life.
Gathright had every opportunity to be like Tre Styles (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) from the movie “Boyz N The Hood” and remove himself from the situation before it got really gangsta.
While Tre’s friends like Doughboy (Ice Cube), Dooky (Dedrick D. Gobert) and Monster (Baldwin C. Sykes) were about the business, he was a good kid from a good home, with a good future ahead of himself.
And back in the day, the real gangsters would not even let a good kid participate in street activity.
But nowadays, it seems like many of our young men are determined to crash out over stupidity.
Gathright had great parents and grandparents.
He had a great support system.
He had been educated at prestigious magnet schools.
He is articulate.
He is intelligent.
And from his presentation on the witness stand, you could tell he had a lot going for himself.
But he chose to throw it all away to pretend to be gangsta.
However, there is nothing pretentious about death.
There is nothing pretentious about life in prison, without the possibility of parole.
All those things are deathly real.
I wish Gathright had a chance to meet someone like Brandon, or someone who knew Brandon’s story.
Maybe then, Gathright would have chosen a different path.
Because all it takes is one mistake to end lives.
And multiple lives were “ended” on June 23, 2024.
Hopefully, his cautionary tale will eventually save lives, too.
- Movie Review: ‘731’ Another Film That is a Warning - September 26, 2025
