Three Arrested Year After Tampa Man Found Fatally Shot In Car

Tampa FL

06 June, 2022

10:52 AM

Description

TAMPA, FL — A year after a man was fatally shot inside a car off Interstate 275, Tampa police have arrested and charged three people in the crime. On June 8, 2021, at 11:22 p.m., Tampa police were called to Interstate 275 near Sligh Avenue after a caller reported hearing gunshots. Tampa Fire Rescue found a Blue Dodge Challenger in the inside shoulder of the southbound roadway. The driver, Lance Henry James Jr., 23, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital with a gunshot wound and later died. Tampa police detectives continued investigating the shooting and developed leads linking Raphael Tyree Thomas, 23; Tyrone James Ellison, 23; and a 17-year-old boy to the shooting. They have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Thomas was already in jail on charges of murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, stemming from a June 21, 2021, shooting in Wildwood, investigated by Sumter County Sheriff's Office. Several people were shot including James' stepbrother, Louis Carr V, 20, and James' sister, Cornecia Quanshay Smikle, 26, who died of her gunshot wounds. Thomas now faces charges of conspiracy to commit murder, murder in the first degree and shooting into a vehicle. Both Ellison and the 17-year-old were also in jail on unrelated firearm possession warrants. Ellison has been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, murder in the first degree and shooting into a vehicle. The 17-year-old was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree.