Victoria Braddock, a 28-year-old woman from Jacksonville, Florida, tragically lost her life on May 15, 2017. She was found with a gunshot wound on Cortez Road at Brookview Drive South and was rushed to UF Health Jacksonville, where she succumbed to her injuries shortly after. Witnesses reported seeing her being pushed out of a moving SUV, which was later identified as a black Chevrolet TrailBlazer.
Surveillance footage confirmed these accounts, showing the vehicle speeding away from the scene.
The investigation quickly led to Charles Rowlands, a 29-year-old former Uber driver, who was identified as a suspect. Rowlands had a black Chevrolet TrailBlazer registered in his name and had been seen with Braddock in the days leading up to her death. On April 25, 2017, Rowlands was arrested on unrelated charges of cocaine possession and carrying a concealed firearm. Despite this, he was seen with Braddock again on May 7, just days before her murder.
Rowlands' girlfriend provided crucial information to the police, revealing that she had noticed a significant amount of blood inside his SUV on the day of Braddock's death. She also mentioned that Rowlands had confessed to doing "something bad" while cleaning the vehicle. An autopsy confirmed that Braddock's wound was consistent with a shotgun blast, and further investigation revealed that Rowlands owned a short-barrel shotgun.
Rowlands was initially charged with evidence tampering as he had attempted to clean the blood from his vehicle. However, as the investigation progressed, he was also charged with second-degree murder. In December 2018, Rowlands entered a plea of guilty to both charges and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. This case brought some closure to Braddock's family, who had been seeking justice for her untimely death.
