CJ Nelson Jr. Pleads Out in Manslaughter Shooting Death of 18-Month-Old Child

CJ Nelson Jr., the 23-year-old Palm Coast resident facing a manslaughter charge in the shooting death of 18-month-old Ja’Liyah Allen on Ranwood Lane in September 2023, pleaded to the charge on Wednesday and will be sentenced on April 3. He faces up to 30 years in prison, but is unlikely to get that maximum.

Nelson tendered an open plea to Circuit Court Judge Dawn Nichols, which leaves it up to Nichols to decide the sentence.




Nelson was one of many people at 2 Ranwood Lane in Palm Coast the night of September 3, 2023. He’d been handling a rifle that he’d shown off in a social media picture. He inadvertently pulled the trigger. The bullet went through the wall. Ja’Liyah was in a crib on the other side of the wall. The bullet struck her head and killed her.

Nelson was on probation at the time of the shooting–for a weapons offense: illegally carrying a firearm. (He’d bought a gun from someone in Daytona Beach, without a permit; the did so before the law changed last year to allow Floridians to carry a gun without a permit.)

Nelson’s attorney, Rose Feller, told the judge he was already a convicted felon from that previous charge. Feller appears to have been inaccurate. The previous charge had been pleaded down to improper exhibition of a firearm, a misdemeanor. Adjudication on a misdemeanor count of pot possession was withheld. The violation and revocation of his probation did not invalidate the reduction of the charge.

The difference is significant since the judge would not likely reduce the sentence if he were already a felon, as much as she would if he is not.

The victim’s mother was deposed in March. She will be testifying at the sentencing. Feller said she is “the only one who matters to me for testifying in sentencing, because as being the mother of the baby, if she has any mitigating or aggravating factors, I’d like to hear them.”

The victim’s mother was in the gallery Wednesday and was ready to testify. But Nichols was not ready to proceed to sentencing  just then. “I do want to be able to hear from the family members,” she said. “I want to hear from people who are related to the victim.” That testimony is likely to weigh heaviest in the judge’s decision. Feller wanted to have a “five-minute conversation” with the victim’s mother ahead of the sentencing. The judge did not have an objection.




CJ Nelson Sr., CJ’s father, is a co-defendant in the case. He is accused of lying to sheriff’s deputies and hiding evidence in an attempt to distance his son from the shooting. “They’re not taking a plea, they’re not doing anything, and they’re trying to depose my client,” Feller said. In other words, CJ Nelson the father is trying to have his son deposed in his own defense. That will not happen until after the younger Nelson’s sentencing, the judge said.

Nelson’s father is charged with two counts of tampering with physical evidence, each a third-degree felony, and two misdemeanor counts of lying to law enforcement.