Jaylin “Jay” Stephon Conorquie, a 20-year-old Black male, was an aspiring rap artist whose family remembered him as quiet, bright and deeply passionate about music. Born on July 11, 2003, he had been identified as a gifted student while attending Royal Palm Elementary School and later attended Lauderhill 6-12 STEM-MED Magnet School and Boyd Anderson High School.
He once participated in praise dancing at a Lauderhill church, an experience his family said helped foster the love of music that became central to his life. He was one of nine siblings and was described as having an unforgettable smile and contagious laugh.
On the afternoon of February 13, 2024, gunfire erupted along a second-floor hallway at the 2500 Inverrary Club Apartments, located near Northwest 27th Court and Northwest 56th Avenue in Lauderhill. Shortly before 4 p.m., several people called 911 to report the shooting. Responding officers found Conorquie a short distance from the apartment complex, lying on the ground, unresponsive and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Court reporting later described wounds to his back, torso, arm and clavicle. Paramedics transported him to Broward Health Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Initial police reports indicated that two other people were injured during the outbreak of gunfire.
The investigation eventually centered on brothers Charles Williams and George Shakele Delay Williams. Surveillance footage obtained from the apartment complex reportedly captured Conorquie and Rayvone Stone running through the hallway as gunshots were fired behind them. Prosecutors later maintained that Charles chased the two men and continued shooting until his ammunition was exhausted. Stone was struck twice in the leg but survived, while Conorquie managed to travel several blocks before collapsing from his wounds. Police body-camera footage shown during court proceedings documented officers attempting to save him.
George Williams was initially the publicly identified suspect. Lauderhill police secured an arrest warrant for him on March 15, 2024, and Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested him several days later in Oakland Park. He was taken to the Broward County jail and accused of premeditated murder in Conorquie’s death, as well as attempted murder in connection with the surviving victim. Subsequent court coverage revealed that Charles Williams had also been charged in the shooting and that prosecutors intended to try the brothers separately.
Charles Williams’ first murder trial ended in a mistrial in January 2026 after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision. During his retrial, the prosecution characterized the shooting as a planned ambush, arguing that the surveillance recording showed Charles relentlessly pursuing the fleeing victims and firing repeatedly. His defense attorneys presented a sharply different account, contending that he acted in self-defense because Conorquie and Stone had attempted to rob him. The jury rejected the self-defense argument and, on June 5, 2026, found Charles guilty of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. At the time the conviction was reported, he faced a possible sentence ranging from 25 years to life in prison. A final sentence had not yet been publicly announced.
George Williams remained separately charged in connection with the same gunfire and was awaiting his own trial when Charles was convicted. Because George’s proceedings had not been completed, the allegations against him remained unresolved and he continued to be legally presumed innocent unless proven guilty. The prosecution of the brothers transformed the case from an initially chaotic apartment-complex shooting investigation into a closely examined murder case supported by surveillance recordings, police body-camera footage and testimony concerning what happened in the hallway before Conorquie was mortally wounded.
For Conorquie’s family, the criminal proceedings followed more than two years of grief after the sudden loss of a young man they believed had a promising future. His funeral services were held in February 2024, and he was laid to rest at Dania Beach Cemetery. Although Charles Williams’ conviction represented a significant measure of accountability, the case was not entirely concluded because his sentencing and George Williams’ separate prosecution remained pending in the latest publicly available reporting.
