{"id":778000,"date":"2026-05-06T20:06:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/778000\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T20:06:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:06:21","slug":"state-seeks-death-penalty-for-man-accused-of-killing-2-people-outside-ponte-vedra-walgreens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/778000\/","title":{"rendered":"State seeks death penalty for man accused of killing 2 people outside Ponte Vedra Walgreens"},"content":{"rendered":"

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 The State Attorney\u2019s Office will seek the death penalty for a man accused of fatally shooting two people at a Walgreens in Ponte Vedra Beach.<\/p>\n

Christian Barrios, 32, was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Melissia Wood and Jason Chatham on March 14.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the SAO filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Barrios.<\/p>\n

According to his arrest warrant, Barrios\u2019 mother drove him to the site of the shooting and told deputies that she heard the moment that gunshots rang off.<\/p>\n

Investigators say he called his mother and asked for a ride to the location where he believed his girlfriend, Melissa Wood, and her alleged boyfriend, Jason Chatham, could be found.<\/p>\n

The mother told St. Johns County deputies that Barrios rode in the back of her car and \u201cfrantically jumped out\u201d upon seeing his girlfriend\u2019s vehicle.<\/p>\n

The arrest warrant states that a few seconds later, the mother told deputies that she heard multiple gunshots coming from the direction of Melissa\u2019s car, which prompted her to call 911 and meet with detectives.<\/p>\n

During their investigation, deputies said they found an empty handgun holster in the back of the mother\u2019s vehicle. The mother told deputies that the holster did not belong to her.<\/p>\n

Previous reports from SJSO, which were redacted, stated that Barrios went to the Walgreens along A1A to confront his girlfriend and a man he believed she was in a relationship with.<\/p>\n

Following the incident, Barrios contacted a witness who was his friend, while that person was speaking with law enforcement, the report said.<\/p>\n

The arrest documents go on to say that Barrios appeared to be concerned with the well-being of the victims; however, he did not make any admissions.<\/p>\n

Barrios also reportedly told the witness that if he met with law enforcement, \u201cthey would likely kill him, and he did not want to go back to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

The warrant further detailed how Barrios allegedly stole a BMW and attempted to evade law enforcement before being caught in Nassau County.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 The State Attorney\u2019s Office will seek the death penalty for a man accused…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":778001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7310,46661,14638,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-778000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-ponte-vedra-beach","13":"tag-st-johns-county","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116529436191215532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}