“I See Myself Changing” Said High School Student Who Grew Up to Be a Rapist
Jadarius D’Shae Powell, 24, has been arrested for committing rape.
Ten years ago Powell was an Eastside High School student participating in the Gainesville Police Department’s (GPD) HEROES program. The Gainesville Sun reported in 2016, “Powell said he used to hang out with a negative crowd, with people who would steal cars or burglarize. Now, when school is out for the summer, he stays home, helps his mother run errands, plays games on his phone, and attends the HEROES program…. Powell said he would get rid of all guns, given recent fatal shootings of Black men by police and high gun-violence rates in metropolitan areas like Chicago.”
“I see myself changing,” 16-year-old Powell told community members. Powell got worse.
Case 1:
In March 2019, a 19-year-old Powell was arrested for domestic battery.
“When I arrived on the scene, law enforcement observed [Powell’s mom] being pinned up against the refrigerator by her biological son, Jadarius Powell,” reported Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) Officer Jeffery Stadnicki. Powell only let her go when officers told him to.
A witness told police they saw Powell shoving his mother through the house.
Powell’s mom said he physically attacked her because she wouldn’t let him use her car to see his girlfriend.
In September 2019, Powell was sentenced to one year of supervised probation and granted a withheld adjudication.
Case 2:
In November 2019, Powell was arrested for improperly exhibiting a firearm, resisting an officer without violence, and firing a weapon in a residential area.
Powell was reportedly involved in a physical altercation at the Downtown Parking Garage and decided bullets from a .38 special revolver would be the answer to the problem.
GPD Officer Lee Bailes reported that after hearing two shots, he ran toward the scene to see Powell improperly holding the firearm.
Powell dropped the gun upon seeing Bailes and got on the ground into a crawling stance. “The defendant resisted my efforts to get him lower, and I had to force him down,” reported Bailes.
Powell told Bailes that the gun was thrown towards him, and he picked it up and dropped it upon seeing him.
A witness said Powell fired two rounds at a wall. Two casings were expended from the gun.
Powell’s resisting charge was dropped. In May 2020, he was adjudicated guilty on his gun charges and received time served for his sentence.
Case 3:
In December 2019, Powell was charged via sworn complaint with one count of burglary and four counts of grand theft of a firearm.
The sworn complaint states that Powell reportedly stole four guns from the victim’s residence. Powell’s fingerprints were positively identified on one of the guns.
Powell told police that he had an associate who wanted to hit a “lick” with him. Powell gave police the name of the associate, but it didn’t show up in any police databases.
Powell’s burglary charge and three of his grand theft charges were dropped.
In April 2020, Powell was adjudicated guilty and sentenced to one year of community control and two years of probation.
Powell violated his community control and was sentenced to three years in prison. His sentence was reduced by 213 days for time served.
Case 4:
On August 22, 2024, Powell and his now ex-girlfriend were in an argument. After the fight, the woman found that Powell had been logged into his Facebook account on her phone.
The woman was correct to be suspicious enough to look through Powell’s phone, as when she did, she reportedly discovered her ex was talking to minors.
This led to the ex's underage family member coming forward to tell her family that Powell had raped her twice in August.
As in all rape cases, the details are obscenely horrific; Powell’s case shows a level of graphicness that makes it difficult to report ethically.
Powell was charged with two counts of sexual battery without physical force against a minor between 12 and 17.
This is despite Powell being described as forcing himself onto the victim.
Case 5:
Powell’s ex showed police videos that Powell sent her. Powell recorded himself firing multiple guns. She said that Powell keeps his guns at his mom’s house or in his car.
The victim observed guns in the backseat of Powell's car. Powell went on to shoot in the air at the Polos Apartment Complex with the victim in the car.
Powell was charged with possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and firing a weapon in a residential area.
Case 6:
On Powell’s first appearance order, his charges for cases 4 and 5 are regarded. However, the court didn’t regard a domestic battery charge he received via sworn complaint on August 20, 2024.
Before the last two cases, Powell reportedly punched his now ex-girlfriend in the head.
Powell alleged he hit her in self-defense. Powell accused the victim of trying to hit him, and she said, “I barely hit you. I was tryna not to.”
Powell was arrested on September 16, 2024, and the State Attorney's Office has filed a motion for pretrial detention.
One of the victims reportedly posted photos of Powell talking to minors, which caused “big controversy” on social media. The messages haven’t been found, but if they are sexually perverse, then Powell should’ve been charged with obscene communication and using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony.
The GPD officer who wrote Powell’s incident report in Case 4, Larry R. Prunty, was charged with child abuse before the State Attorney’s Office dropped the charges. Powell’s incident report shows Prunty was permitted to retain his employment.
“Jadarius Powell, 16, walked into a Gainesville Police Department conference room wearing a yellow button-down shirt, a red-and-white polka-dot tie and a smile” reported the Gainesville Sun a decade ago.
Deborah Strange Staff writer, Gainesville Sun
