On an autumn night in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a party inside a shuttered business on 28th Street SE turned into a scene of violence. On October 9, 2016, amidst the gathering, gunfire erupted, leaving 21-year-old Juwan Boykin, a male, dead and eight other people wounded. The shooting, which occurred at approximately 3:45 a.m., was believed by police to be gang-related.
Boykin was pronounced dead at the scene, sparking a lengthy investigation to find the person responsible for the deadly outburst.
For more than three months, detectives pieced together the events of that chaotic night. Their investigation led them to Jokari Dwayne Lowery, who was 20 years old at the time of his arrest. In a coordinated effort involving state police, the FBI, and federal marshals, Lowery was taken into custody on January 31, 2017. He was subsequently charged with open murder, firearms offenses, being a habitual offender, and gang-related felonies. Lowery was held without bond at the Kent County Correctional Center as the legal process began to unfold.
In court, Jokari Lowery, then 21, chose to plead no contest to second-degree murder as part of a plea agreement. During his sentencing hearing on August 24, 2017, Lowery expressed condolences to Boykin's family but denied being the one who killed him. However, Kent County Circuit Court Judge Mark Trusock presented a different account, stating that Lowery had stood over Boykin and shot him five times in what the judge described as a 'cold-blooded, well thought-out execution.' The judge noted Lowery's lack of remorse for his actions. Ultimately, Lowery was sentenced to 28 to 90 years in prison for the murder, with an additional mandatory two-year term for the felony use of a firearm, making his total sentence 30 to 90 years. The judge expressed his hope that Lowery would never be released from prison.
