The defense is slated to rest next week in the trial of a Moreno Valley man accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend’s new lover — in front of their children — stemming from extreme jealousy about the relationship.
Jerome Roy Jackson, 37, allegedly killed Jason Williams of Riverside in 2022.
Jackson is charged with first-degree murder, two counts of child endangerment and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.
The prosecution rested Thursday after calling its final witness at the Riverside Hall of Justice. The defense was scheduled to summon witnesses on April 1, with closing arguments possibly the same day or the day after.
Jackson is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail.
According to a trial brief filed by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, Jackson and Williams, 38, were one-time friends, but a conflict developed in 2021 when the defendant and his girlfriend, Corina Aguirre, split up, and Jackson moved out of their two-story house on Tea Rose Lane, where he and Aguirre had been raising their four children together.
Jackson and Aguirre had been a couple, cohabitating for 15 years, and after he left the house, “he repeatedly told her that he would hurt any man she dated after him,” the brief stated.
In the early afternoon of Aug. 6, 2022, Jackson drove with his then-girlfriend, 48-year-old Danielle Ryan Rainey of Riverside, to the Tea Rose Lane neighborhood, parking about a block away on Snapdragon Lane, prosecutors said.
Jackson had allegedly armed himself with a .380 semiautomatic pistol and a 9mm handgun. The brief said that he contacted his eldest daughter, identified only as “K.J.,” and directed her to send him a FaceTime message when the victim arrived to meet Aguirre.
When Williams pulled up in his Mercedes E350, K.J. did as instructed, at which point Jackson told Rainey to drive her Chevrolet Cruz over to Aguirre’s house while he loaded his two pistols, prosecutors alleged.
After she parked, he got out of the car and “made contact with Williams in the driveway, where they began to argue,” according to the brief.
“This resulted in a brief shoving match (until) Williams reached out his hand to shake the defendant’s, seemingly to bury the hatchet,” the narrative said. “The defendant took a few steps backwards, pulled out a gun and began firing.”
The victim was struck by multiple rounds through both shoulders, lower back, right hip, right arm and right-side rib cage, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Jackson emptied the .38-caliber gun, pausing only to walk over to his girlfriend’s car to obtain the 9mm, prosecutors alleged. Aguirre, K.J. and one of the other children ran into the driveway, screaming at Jackson to stop his attack, according to the brief.
Despite the severity of his wounds, Williams was able to stumble toward his Mercedes and made it to the driver’s side when the defendant walked over and specifically targeted the man’s head, court papers alleged. Without hesitating, he allegedly shot him through the head from side-to-side, killing the victim instantly, according to the prosecution.
Witnesses called 911, as did Jackson, who conveyed to dispatchers that Williams had allegedly initiated the confrontation by trying to throw a punch, according to the brief. The defendant waited at the scene for sheriff’s deputies to arrive and was taken into custody without incident while still on his mobile phone, speaking with a dispatcher.
During questioning with detectives, the defendant’s story changed several times, until he ultimately commented that Williams had “pulled a gun and fired, bro,” the brief said.
No firearm was found in the victim’s possession. Statements from Aguirre and the children contradicted the defendant’s version of what happened, along with security surveillance videos captured via cameras attached to surrounding houses, according to prosecutors.
Rainey was originally charged with being an accessory after the fact. However, following a February 2024 preliminary hearing, the allegation against her was dismissed.
Court records indicated that Jackson has a prior misdemeanor conviction for reckless driving, but no documented felony convictions in Riverside County.