Tanglewood shooter will be tried as adult, judge rules
GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – The teenager accused of shooting and killing a classmate at Tanglewood Middle School will be tried as an adult.
Jordan Williams, Jr., 14, sitting at the defendant’s bench wearing an olive-green shirt and a black surgical mask, looked back toward his family sitting on a pew behind him, just once during the hearing. It was when his attorneys turned around to ask Jordan’s family if they wanted to make a statement to the court after Judge Jessica Salvini issued her decision just before 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Jordan’s family said no.
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“He wrote himself a note that said, ‘At 12 years old I am going to kill somebody, and I am going to get out in two years, and when I do, I am going to have a gun,’ is essentially what he said,” said Salvini before she announced her decision.
The judge said her ruling was based around four main factors:
The maturity level of then 12-year-old Jordan when he shot his 12-year-old classmate in the hallway of Tanglewood Middle School.
Jordan’s need for rehabilitation and the quality of that rehabilitation depending on where he is incarcerated.
Weighing the need for the community to be protected versus Jordan’s need for rehabilitation.
The extent of the pre-meditated nature and level of sophistication that Jordan demonstrated in carrying out his attack.
“I feel, right now, like there’s two deaths essentially,” said Salvini. “Like two lives have been ruined.”
On March 31, 2022, a School Resource Officer discovered Jamari Cortez Bonaparte-Jackson, 12, collapsed in the hallways of Tanglewood Middle School with a bullet wound. The SRO said in court they rushed to the scene after hearing a gunshot.
“I’m going to go home today and hug my little girls,” said Bill Young, an attorney who helped argue against Jordan’s case remaining in juvenile court. “[My co-lawyer] is going to go home and hug her grandchildren. Jamari’s grandparents aren’t going to be able to hug him.”
School security camera footage that was played in court, shows Jordan taking out a gun and shooting Bonaparte-Jackson. Seconds later, kids are seen running away down the hallway.
“I understand the defense’s position is that this is a result of a lot of bullying that was going on,” said Salvini to the courtroom.
After the school was cleared by police, a manhunt ensued to find Jordan. Police eventually discovered Jordan had run and hid under a nearby home’s porch, finding the gun Jordan had used lying there as well.
In the hearing that lasted just over 20 minutes, Salvini took off her glasses before looking towards the defendant’s bench.
“I’m going to grant the state’s request to waive [Jordan] to the Court of General Sessions and try him as an adult,” she said.
Several members of Jordan’s family started to cry.
Salvini said it was one of the hardest decisions she’s ever had to make as a judge. She noted that if Jordan was tried as a juvenile and found guilty, that he could be released in as few as 14 months based on credit given to time-served.
Salvini ultimately determined that wasn’t enough time to “rehabilitate” Jordan.
Young said just before the hearing, he and his team filed civil lawsuits against the school district for Greenville County, the district’s superintendent, several former and current Tanglewood Middle school administrators and the Williams family for what he called inaction that failed 12-year-old Jamari Jackson.
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Jordan originally appeared in front of a judge in December of 2023 to decide if he would be tried as an adult. According to South Carolina law, a person convicted of murder faces up to life imprisonment or the death penalty.
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