In the winter of 2015 in Utica, New York, a young man's life was tragically cut short. Jamal M. Mathis, a 26-year-old male, was found deceased on December 19, 2015. His body was discovered in the backyard of a residence on the 1100 block of Leeds Street, the victim of multiple gunshot wounds.
The investigation into the death of Jamal Mathis continued for over a year. In March 2017, the Utica Police Department announced an arrest in connection with the homicide.
Ricky Woods Jr., a 19-year-old from the neighboring village of Yorkville, was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder. At the time of his arrest for the Mathis case, Woods was already incarcerated at the Oneida County Jail on unrelated charges of attempted murder and kidnapping from an incident that occurred in January of that year.
The legal proceedings against Ricky Woods Jr. for the murder of Jamal Mathis were complex and drawn out. His first trial, held in 2017, did not result in a conclusive verdict, ending in a mistrial. This necessitated a second trial to determine his guilt or innocence. In July 2018, a jury in Oneida County Court delivered the final verdict in the second trial. After deliberation, Ricky Woods Jr. was found not guilty of the second-degree murder of Jamal Mathis.
