Kobe White was a 15-year-old Black male from Lafayette, Louisiana, who was loved by his family and friends. A student at North Side High School, he enjoyed playing video games, basketball, and football. Many in his neighborhood had watched him grow up, and his memory is cherished by those who knew him.
On June 21, 2022, Kobe’s life was cut short by gun violence. The shooting took place on the 800 block of South Sterling Street, outside his family’s home.
Earlier that day, Kobe had been released from a juvenile detention center after a week-long stay and was picked up by his older sister, Martasha Jones. The events that followed stemmed from what a prosecutor later described as a plan to steal a gun. Two weeks prior, Jones had sent a text message to a teen named Charles Andrus, asking him to beat up her brother because she claimed he had stolen from her. Though she later insisted she had forgiven him, on the night of the shooting, Jones contacted Andrus and another teen, Jabori Caldwell, and asked them to steal a gun from Kobe’s friend. However, investigators found text messages showing that Kobe had actually acquired the firearm for his sister earlier that day. Just before Andrus and Caldwell arrived, Kobe and his friend left the house, but Jones texted her brother and told him to return.
Investigators with the Lafayette Police Department collected evidence from witness interviews, cell phone records, and footage from a police surveillance camera near the family home. Detectives learned that after her arrest, Jones asked her girlfriend to wipe her phone to erase incriminating messages, but police were able to intervene before the evidence was destroyed. In July 2022, a grand jury indicted Martasha Jones, then 19, along with Charles Andrus, 16, and Jabori Caldwell, 17, on charges of second-degree murder. The district attorney’s office chose to prosecute the two teenagers as adults.
In an emotional court hearing on August 18, 2023, both Martasha Jones and Charles Andrus pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. Andrus, then 17, was identified as the confessed shooter. The judge sentenced both him and Jones, then 20, to 15 years in prison with credit for time served. Addressing them, the judge said, “There is opportunity for your future still. That is something Mr. White does not have.” As of August 2023, the case against the third defendant, Jabori Caldwell, remains pending on a charge of second-degree murder.
