C.J. Nelson Jr., the 22-year-old Palm Coast man arrested on an unrelated charge the night of the shooting death of an 18-month-old girl at at 2 Ranwood Lane in September, was charged with manslaughter with a firearm for that death on Wednesday. The first degree felony charge is punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Nelson was served the warrant at the Flagler County jail, where he’s been held since the night of the shooting on Sept. 3, when he was arrested on a probation violation.
Nelson had been arrested a year ago on a charge of illegally carrying a concealed firearm, and on a pot charge. He had no prior convictions. He pleaded last September and was sentenced to six months on probation, with adjudication withheld (so he was not branded a felon). His probation was set to expire on Oct. 3.
When witnesses reported that he had been seen with a gun at the Ranwood Lane house the night of the shooting, Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies arrested him on that probation violation, on n o bond. His attorney, Adolphus Thompson filed a motion at the end of September to set bond and allow Nelson to post it, arguing that his probation violation was “only a technical violation,” and that he had complied with all the terms of probation, including payments, making him eligible for early termination.
Law enforcement was loath to set him free because he was, in Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly’s words, a person of interest in the death of the girl, who’d been shot in the head. The bullet had been fired from a gun in the next room. The bullet traveled through the wall, killing the girl.
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Sheriff’s deputies were called to the R-Section house at 11:42 p.m. on Sept. 3. “After multiple interviews with individuals who were at the residence,” Olga Dunchik, Nelson’s probation officer, wrote in her probation violation report, “there were more than one individual who provided law enforcement sworn statements that they saw [Nelson] handling the firearm within the residence on 09/03/23, and [Nelson] also mentioned a firearm was ‘jammed.’”
Nelson was living at the Ranwood Lane house with his girlfriend and his son at the time, and working full time at a $17-an-hour job. Given the circumstances of Nelson’s re-arrest, the probation officer recommended that probation be revoked. The hearing on the defense’s motion for bond was not scheduled until Nov. 30, before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins. Yesterday’s manslaughter charge appears to have made that motion moot, but not necessarily.
Nelson’s bond was set at “none” in the manslaughter case, but it is likely his attorney will motion for a reasonable bond even in that case, and argue that the shooting was accidental. The prosecution would likely argue that a man on probation for a weapons violation who faces a manslaughter charge in the killing of a child is, by definition, a danger to society.
The 18-month-old girl was transported to AdventHealth Palm Coast South after the shooting, where she was pronounced deceased. Nelson initially told deputies that he did not have possession of the firearm from where the bullet originated, and claimed he was not sure where the gun came from.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly and State Attorney R.J. Larizza are expected to speak about the latest development in the case at a 2:15 press conference at the Sheriff’s Operations Center in Bunnell.
