On March 8, 2021, the driver of a Nissan Altima trailed a group of friends as they left a Cheesecake Factory in Clearwater.
As the group approached U.S. Highway 19 in a black Nissan Maxima, the Altima slid to a stop, and the driver’s side window was rolled down. In a matter of seconds, 21 bullets exploded into the Maxima, killing 18-year-old Ivon Cobbs Jr. and hospitalizing three others.
Three men were in the Altima, but prosecutors say there is no evidence to prove who fired the shots. All three are charged with first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.
On Friday, a Pinellas County jury found Derriontae Ward, 24, guilty on all counts after deliberating for about three hours.
As the verdict was read, Ward began to wrestle with the bailiffs. Eight deputies held him down and escorted him out in handcuffs. His family left hysterically before the entire verdict was read.
Minutes later, when Ward was brought back to the courtroom for sentencing, he argued with Pinellas Judge Phillipe Matthey.
“Are you going to let me speak?” Matthey asked.
“What’s the point?” Ward replied.
Matthey imposed a sentence of life in prison.
Brian Campbell, 24, and Benjamin Sanders, 23, are set for trial together in July. Campbell and Sanders are also facing a fourth attempted murder charge in the December 2021 shooting of Cobbs’ uncle.
Ward’s three-day trial centered on a group of friends who grew up together on Betty Lane in Clearwater before a dispute over a woman led to a falling out and a series of shootings.
A friend group fractures
Sometime in 2020, the friends had split into two groups because Cobbs was sleeping with the mother of Ward’s child, Assistant State Attorney Elizabeth Constantine told the jury. Cobbs’ nickname was “Spazz,” and Sanders’ nickname was “Spin.” When either group took action against the other, they would use the terms “Spinning” or “Spazzing.”
Between December 2021 and March 2022, police tied seven shootings to both groups.
According to Constantine, the clearest indication of Ward’s motive came two weeks before the shooting, when he threatened Cobbs’ sister with a gun.
On Feb. 16, 2021, Ward went to the Cobbs’ house and brandished a gun at Ivy Cobbs, Constantine said. He told her to get her brother.
Ward was arrested on an aggravated battery charge. He was released from jail two days later on a $10,000 bond, and he was ordered to wear an ankle monitor. That case is still pending.
A little over two weeks later, Ward got into the Altima with Campbell and Sanders. Surveillance video and GPS tracking data mapped Ward’s movements.
About 9 p.m. March 8, Ward was seen walking into the Cheesecake Factory at 27001 U.S. 19 N. and looking into the seating area, where Cobbs and the others were eating. Ward then walked back to the parking lot. GPS coordinates later showed him in the same lane of the intersection where Cobbs was shot — about 5 miles from the restaurant — before the driver in the Altima sped away at over 100 mph.
Ward was arrested months before Campbell and Sanders because he was wearing the ankle monitor. He cut it off in the days after the shooting, police said.
In the year after Cobbs’ death, Campbell and Sanders continued to provoke members of the other group and their family members, prosecutors said.
On March 15, 2022, Campbell took to Facebook Live to say Cobbs got hit with bullets “the size of a toe” and “everybody gonna get hit,” according to the video prosecutors played in court.
Prosecutors also found a photo on Sanders’ phone where he appears to be inside the Altima, holding a rifle that they believe was used in Cobbs’ killing.
Campbell and Sanders were arrested in the summer of 2022.
Prosecutors pointed to two facts that they said proved Ward’s guilt: that he cut off his ankle monitor, and that he got a jailhouse tattoo reading “21 shots” with a sketch of a Florida highway.
“This is not behavior consistent with innocent activity,” said Assistant State Attorney Liz Traverso.
In court Thursday, Brandon Gentry described himself as the jail’s “resident tattoo artist.” He testified that he was the one who gave Ward the tattoo on his chest, using staples and melted hair grease, in 2023.
Gentry, who’s being held on multiple felony drug charges, testified as a jailhouse informant. Prosecutors said he was not granted leniency in exchange for his testimony.
Even though 21 shots were fired, prosecutors said, police only found 20 shell casings.
“The trigger-puller would know that 21 rounds were fired,” Traverso said. “Think of the lengths Mr. Ward went through to memorialize this behavior on his chest.”
‘It’s been a long five years’
As jurors weighed the case against Ward, his mother, Latasha Hayes, waited outside the courtroom with several family members.
“I feel like my son wasn’t represented properly, and that wasn’t right,” she said.
She said Ward sustained an arm injury weeks before the shooting that would’ve prevented him from pulling the trigger.
As the verdict was read, Ward’s family stormed out in tears, saying he was innocent. Cobbs’ family listened in silence, tears streaming down their faces.
Cobbs’ aunt, Quanda Dixson, said she’s relieved to have gotten justice.
“Ivon stayed in my house that night and I said, ‘Be careful nephew, I love you,’ before he left,” she said. “It’s been crazy ever since. I don’t understand why they want all these guns and to shoot each other. It’s just sad.”
Ivy Cobbs said she’s glad her brother “got his rest.”
“It’s been a long five years,” she said. “One down, two to go.”
