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Jatavis Devonte Scott, 25 of Mound Bayou, MS, died at Lancaster General Hospital on March 19 not long after he was shot by Tyler Jamel Wilson, now 29 of Columbia, PA, the Lancaster County District Attorney's office announced.
Wilson was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, according to the Lancaster DA's office.
Wilson "was found guilty by [a] jury of third-degree murder, persons not to possess a firearm, carrying a firearm without a license, and eight counts of recklessly endangering another person for shooting Scott in the parking lot of the former Club Twenty3 following a barfight that continued outside on March 29, 2022," the DA's office stated in the release on Feb. 1.
Officers were first called to the now defunct club for a reported fight at 1:23 a.m., but they arrived to only find “spent shell casings” and fresh blood spatter on the parking lot, according to the release. Police soon learned that Scott had been taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds where he later died from his injuries, as Daily Voice previously reported. The coroner ruled the cause of death as "a gunshot wound to the chest and manner as homicide," the DA said.
Security camera footage showed Wilson shooting Scott, so an arrest warrant was issued, but he turned himself in the following Monday, Mar. 21 around 1:16 p.m., police explained at the time.
The footage, along with cellphone video, and witness statements were presented as evidence by Assistant District Attorneys Mark Fetterman and Jessica Collo who prosecuted the case.
“Defense counsel said the video evidence of the shots fired and flash of light was insufficient, but those two shots and a flash of light were enough to end a human being’s life. At the end of that gun was this man’s hand,” Collo said while pointing at the defendant. “That flick of light was a muzzle flash from Tyler Wilson’s hand that sent grown men running, terrified, and ended a man’s life. He was the only one not shocked by a resounding pop from a firearm because he’s the one that pulled the trigger.”
Despite the evidence, Wilson's lawyer argued he wasn't the shooter.
The verdict came back by the jury in under three hours and was delivered at 3 p.m. on Feb. 1.
Wilson has a lengthy criminal record, including a felony after pleaded guilty to fleeing from the police.
He was also convicted of possession with intent to deliver controlled substances in 2015, according to court records.
Scott's funeral service was held back in Mississippi according to his obituary, but the lives he touched in Pennsylvania will never forget him. He would have turned 27 years old on Jan. 1, 2024.
“This was a senseless murder,” Assistant District Attorney Mark Fetterman said. “It wasn’t a gang dispute that went wrong or something like that. It was just people out at the bar.”
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