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Grand Jury Indicts Two On Murder Charges In Cantonment Shooting Death

A man and woman have been indicted on murder charges by an Escambia County grand jury for a February 1 shooting on Lawson Lane in Cantonment.

Jonathan Taylor Hobbs was indicted on one count of first degree premeditated murder with a firearm, and Dawn Lucille Sluder was indicted on one count of first degree premeditated murder. Both remain in jail without bond and are set for arraignment later this month.

Danny Blackmon, Jr., 35, was shot and killed as his 19-year old girlfriend watched in horror, according to Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons.

“We had a crazy and deadly series of events that unfolded in North Escambia,” Simmons told NorthEscambia.com.

Sluder is the mother of Blackmon’s 19-year old girlfriend.

On the Saturday before the shooting, Sluder reported her 19-year daughter as either a runaway or as being held against her will.

“We made contact with the daughter, and she told us, ‘I am happy where I am at and with my boyfriend’,” Simmons said.

Investigators found Blackmon deceased with numerous gunshot wounds, including two on his upper torso, one in his neck and at least two in his head. After Blackmon fell to the ground, Hobbs reportedly leaned over his body and fired at least two more rounds before running away. Blackmon’s girlfriend witnessed the entire incident and attempted to perform CPR until she beaten and pulled away by her hair by Dawn Sluder, an arrest report states.

“You read about this kind of craziness in other places or see it on television, but unfortunately this time it happened here,” Simmons said. “It’s just crazy. We have a lady whose boyfriend is dead, and her mother and grandmother are in jail. It was a wild weekend.”

Sluder was apprehended at a convenience store on Muscogee Road near Jacks Branch Road. There was extensive damage to her SUV (pictured below) consistent with having collided with the Ford F-150 as stated by the witness. Hobbs walked up to a resident on Country Hills Road and asked to use the phone. The resident called 911, and deputies responded to take Hobbs into custody without further incident.

Hobbs and Sluder requested attorneys and refused to make any statement in the hours after their arrests.

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office also responded to a call of an armed home invasion at Blackmon’s residence in the days before his death. The girlfriend’s grandmother, 57-year old Holly Marie Sluder, and the grandmother’s boyfriend, 63-year old Charles Burnell Parker, were both charged with first degree armed burglary . Parker allegedly pointed a gun at Blackmon while Holly Marie Sluder kept her hand on a holstered weapon as they took two cellphones. Blackmon tracked the phones to an area near their residence, and he phones were located when a search warrant was executed on Greymont Lane.

Pictured; A female suspect was taken into custody on Muscogee Road following a shooting Monday afternoon in Cantonment. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.