[chris]

Florida's Fifth District Court of Appeal reversed Jakari D. Webb's first-degree murder conviction in Telan Mann's killing on February 6, 2026, finding that the trial court failed to independently determine Webb's competence to stand trial.

A Volusia County grand jury indicted Webb on July 19, 2022, and he pleaded not guilty. His trial opened on April 2, 2024. Defense attorney Gordon Fenderson told jurors the evidence did not connect the crime to Webb. On April 4, 2024, after about two hours of deliberation, jurors found Webb, then 21, guilty of first-degree murder. Circuit Judge Randell Rowe III imposed the mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Webb appealed. The trial court had appointed an expert to evaluate his competency. The appeals court found reasonable grounds to believe Webb might not be competent and ruled that the failure to make an independent determination was fundamental error. It returned the case to the Volusia County circuit court to determine, after the fact, whether Webb was competent at trial, or to hold a new trial if that determination cannot be made.

Mann and Webb were both 19 and lived in Daytona Beach, Florida. Police described Mann as openly gay and said the two had communicated on social media since February 2022. They believed the shooting night was their first in-person meeting. According to the charging affidavit, Webb told police Mann had started saying a couple of years earlier that Webb was gay, and some people had begun to believe it. Webb said he created a fake Instagram account to "get back" at Mann. Police Chief Jakari Young said the suspect had a "concern that he was going to be outed by our victim."

The affidavit said they exchanged more than 170 messages between 11:30 p.m. on June 22, 2022, and 1:51 a.m. on June 23. At 1:51 a.m., Webb asked Mann to "come to side walk." Mann's last message, "That's you hiding.", was never delivered because the Instagram account had been disabled. Patrolling officers heard gunshots and found Mann's body shortly before 2 a.m. on a sidewalk near Oak Tree Circle and Forest Glen Boulevard. At trial, prosecutors said a 9 mm pistol was used. Trial coverage reported Mann was shot nine times and one wound was fatal.

Daytona Beach police reviewed more than 100 hours of surveillance video from nearby businesses and other locations, including Bethune-Cookman University, and traced the suspect to a home on Garden Street a couple of miles away. According to the affidavit, video showed Webb walking from Nova Road onto Forest Glen Boulevard toward the scene and kneeling behind a grass hill near Oak Tree Circle to conceal himself. Detectives served a search warrant at the home at about 8:45 p.m. on June 28, 2022. Webb tried and failed to flee from SWAT and K-9 officers and was taken into custody. A handgun was found on the property. He was held without bond at the Volusia County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder.

According to the affidavit, Webb initially told investigators he and his brother had spent all of June 22 at the Garden Street property and slept there. Detectives said surveillance video contradicted that account. After investigators showed him video of his movements, Webb admitted shooting Mann. He first claimed self-defense, then said the shooting was an accident.

With the conviction reversed, Webb is not currently convicted of Mann's killing and is presumed innocent. As of November 1, 2026, no competency ruling, hearing date or new trial has been reported, and Florida prison records still list Webb in custody at South Bay Correctional Facility under the 2024 life sentence.