A young Oklahoma man is locked in county prison on a seven-figure bond after being charged with fatally shooting a Black woman in a fit of road rage.
On Wednesday, Sept. 7, Julian Zavaleta, then a 21-year-old, was charged with first-degree murder and the use of a vehicle in the discharge of a weapon, in the shooting of Shantel Jones, 25, on Friday, Aug. 19, while she was parked at an Auto Zone in Tulsa, according to Tulsaworld.
Around 2:20 p.m. witnesses say they saw her get out of her vehicle moments before Zavaleta, driving his gray car, came up and shot her from his car, striking her in the abdomen.
Jones was rushed to a hospital where she died from her injuries.
The deceased was a Bronx transplant, who moved to Tulsa with a friend, hoping to relocate to Georgia at the end of the year. Family members remember her as being beloved and staying “pretty much … to herself.”
Her older sister Shantel Smith, who shared the same name, according to KJRH, said she often was considered the life of the party, saying, “Her energy was just so unmatched.”
Charging documents state the now-22-year-old fled the scene after he shot the woman but contacted police a half hour later to confess what he did.
Tulsa Police Homicide Sgt. Brandon Watkins asserts Jones may have been a victim of road rage after she cut off Zavaleta as she was entering the auto parts store parking lot.
“When people have guns ready and available, they tend to do stupid stuff with them, and a young woman died,” Watkins said.
The man was picked up by officers from the Tulsa Police Department at 71st Street and Trenton Ave., where he was surrounded by his family members at the family “meal business” south of the crime scene. There he was arrested; his gun was confiscated by police, and his car was towed.
Officers later booked him into the Tulsa County Jail, where he remains in lieu of a $1.5 million bond.
Prosecutors charged him with the two counts on Wednesday, Aug. 24, five days after the shooting and the day of his 22nd birthday.
Murder in the first degree in Oklahoma holds a hefty penalty that is one of the harshest in the nation. If convicted, Zavaleta will face life in prison “( 45 years in the state of Oklahoma with eligibility for parole after serving 85 percent of the sentence), a life sentence without the possibility of parole, or death (referred to as capital murder),” according to attorney Matt Swain, a criminal defense attorney in the state.
Zavaleta’s preliminary hearing is set for Wednesday, Sept. 28.
