Rebekah Jones' son sentenced to indefinite probation for Florida school shooting threats
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A Santa Rosa County judge sentenced the son of former congressional candidate and fired State of Florida employee Rebekah Jones to an indefinite amount of probation Wednesday for charges related to threatening to shoot up a school.
In 2023, Jones' then-13-year-old son, called J.J. in court records, was charged under Florida Statute 836.10, for allegedly making repeated threats to shoot up Holley Navarre Middle School and to stab students who angered him. The statute outlaws written or electronic threats to kill, do bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism.
The News Journal is not naming Rebekah Jones' son since he was not charged as an adult and remained in juvenile court, but is including his relationship to his mother because Jones has been vocal about her son's case.
"I will withhold adjudication, meaning that he is not convicted," Judge Steven Warrick told J.J. during the hearing. "I'm going to place him on a period of probation, an indefinite period of probation not to exceed his 19th birthday."
Rebekah Jones: Son charged under law making online threats - even 'jokes' or 'memes' - a crime
Warrick also told him to "continue on the path that you're on" and to learn from bad choices.
J.J.'s sentence comes five months after he pleaded no contest on Dec. 15, 2023, to the charge. As part of the sentencing, the judge withheld adjudication of delinquency and ordered J.J. to comply with the following:
Complete 50 hours of community service
Write a 1,000-word essay on taking responsibility for his actions
Read the book "Know The Law"
Take all medications as prescribed
Comply with any therapy deemed necessary by a psychiatrist
Check in weekly with a school resource officer
J.J. will also have a curfew of 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Friday and Saturday while he remains on probation. The boy will also not be able to use the internet or social media unless directly supervised by his parents or by someone his parents have appointed.
The judge also ordered J.J. to pay $268 in court costs, but since the judge and J.J.'s attorney, Alex Saiz, noted the Jones family is indigent, the boy will be allowed to work at a rate of $10 per hour to cover the court costs.
As part of the order, Jones and her husband, Jacob Romer, will be required to report any violation in probation to J.J.'s probation officer within 24 hours of the violation or risk being held in contempt.
The family has since moved out of Florida.
Why was Rebekah Jones' son charged with threatening a school shooting?
An incident report released in April 2023 by the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office alleges that Jones' son made repeated threats to shoot up Holley Navarre Middle School and to stab students who angered him. J.J. had recently been withdrawn from the school and was being homeschooled.
Investigators interviewed multiple students who spoke with the teenager, as well as those who saw messages he posted on social media. In the messages to his friends, the teenager made the following statements, among others:
“I want to shoot up the school.”
"If I get a gun I’m gonna shoot up hnms lol.”
“I’m getting a wrath and natural selection shirt so maybe but I don’t think many ppl know what the columbine shooters look like.”
“Okay so it’s been like 3-4 weeks since I got on my new antidepressants and they aren’t working but they’re suppose to by now so I have no hope in getting better so why not kill the losers at school.”
"Does your plug have access to guns?"
"I always keep a knife on me so maybe I'll just stab people idk"
J.J., who was homeschooled at the time of the alleged threats, told one of his friends that he planned to shoot up the school the Thursday before Spring Break but there were too many things going on so he postponed it until March 31.
The students reported the claims to the school prior to that date and the investigation was launched.
Rebekah Jones claimed Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered her son be arrested
Jones took to Twitter after her son's arrest in April and claimed Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered J.J. be arrested after she filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the state Health Department and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo asking for her job back along with back pay.
"My family is not safe," Rebekah Jones tweeted. "My son has been taken on the gov's orders, and I've had to send my husband and daughter out of state for their safety. THIS is the reality of living in DeSantis' Florida. There is no freedom here. Only retaliatory rule by a fascist who wishes to be king."
When Jones asked the officers who ordered the arrest, she says an officer told her “it was the state.”
Who is Rebekah Jones?
Jones is a former Florida data scientist who accused the Health Department of intentionally falsifying pandemic data on behalf of DeSantis. The claims were rejected as unfounded by an inspector general's report.
Jones came to national prominence during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic after she was fired from her position with the Florida Department of Health. Jones said she was fired for speaking out about what she said was the state's manipulation of COVID-19 data, while state officials said she was fired for insubordination.
Jones later ran against Rep. Matt Gaetz for Florida’s 1st Congressional District, but lost to Gaetz who gained 68% of the vote.
Rebekah Jones' criminal history
Prosecutors filed a deferred prosecution agreement in Leon County Circuit Court on Dec. 9, 2022, that was signed by Jones.
The agreement delays prosecution for two years and has six special conditions, including paying $20,000 to reimburse the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for its investigation costs and admitting guilt to the charged offense.
If Jones meets conditions and is not arrested for another crime during the two-year period, prosecutors will drop the charges without Jones having to enter a guilty plea in the case officially.
Jones was charged in the case after FDLE agents executed a search warrant on her home in December 2020 that made national news.
Prosecutors alleged that Jones accessed a state computer system without authorization and sent a mass text calling on state employees to speak out against Florida's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
By that point, Jones had become a well-known critic of DeSantis and had filed a whistleblower complaint after being fired from the Florida Department of Health five months earlier.
A state inspector general report released earlier in 2022 on Jones' whistleblower allegations found no evidence of wrongdoing by the Department of Health.
Jones took to social media once again, calling reports she admitted guilt false. In a video posted to her YouTube account, she said she had only admitted to having a Department of Health roster on her private computer.
"There was no guilty plea. There was no plea of any kind because it was a dismissal. The case is being dropped," Jones said in a video published on her YouTube channel.
However, the agreement she signed explicitly says she is admitting guilt.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Rebekah Jones son sentenced for Navarre Florida school shooting threat
