In the fall of 2017, the life of 31-year-old Kelvin Cooley was tragically cut short in a brazen act of violence on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama. On October 23, 2017, just moments after leaving the Montgomery County Courthouse where he had testified as a witness in a criminal case, Cooley was ambushed in his car at the intersection of Lawrence and Scott Streets.
The male victim was shot multiple times and rushed to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries the following day.
The events leading to Cooley's death were deeply rooted in a cycle of violence and retaliation. Cooley had just provided testimony in the murder and assault trial of Jacquees Boone. Boone was accused of shooting and paralyzing Cooley's brother, Alondre, in 2014 in an act of revenge after the Cooley family assisted investigators in a drug-related case. The brazenness of the attack on a key witness, just five minutes after he left the stand, sent shockwaves through the community and led to a mistrial in Jacquees Boone's case, as jurors expressed fear for their safety. Another of Alondre's brothers, Marcus Cooley, who was also slated to testify, had been killed in a seemingly unrelated drug incident just months prior.
The investigation into Kelvin Cooley's murder swiftly pointed to Josephus Boone, the 25-year-old brother of Jacquees Boone. He was arrested in connection with the shooting. In a further legal move, the judge in Jacquees Boone's trial ordered him to be held without bond in connection to Cooley's murder. The prosecution of Josephus Boone was handled by the Alabama Attorney General's Office to avoid any conflict of interest with the local district attorney's office, which was entangled in the ongoing cases.
In January 2025, after an eight-day trial, a Montgomery County jury found Josephus Boone guilty of capital murder for shooting from a vehicle, intentional murder, and discharging a firearm into an occupied building. Evidence presented at trial showed that Boone had fired 17 shots from his vehicle at Cooley, with some of the bullets striking the nearby First Baptist Church, endangering others within the building. Following the guilty verdict, Josephus Boone was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Kelvin Cooley, bringing a measure of justice to a case marked by witness intimidation and retaliatory violence.
