Javion Magee's family speaks after he was found dead with rope around his neck in Vance County

For purposes of the media

We're gonna do something quick

My name is Lee Merritt

Leem

Er R I TT we're gonna have uh Jon's mom

and his dad step to the microphone spell their name

for us and then just step back

Hello I am uh Sierra Roberson Gates

Um My first name is spelled T I A R

A

Uh last name Rob as in boy er S as

in Sam on Gates Gates it's very ecliptic

Um K my name is Corey Magee

It's Kor I ma gee uh it's my son

Um I just wanna sorry one minute

All right shortly

You're going to be hearing from both Mr Daniels and

Mr K

Uh who will talk to you about where we are

concerning the investigation and uh what we're considering uh as

far as litigation the family has just gone through an

exhausting process of reviewing all the evidence in Vance County

files detailing the death of their son

So they're not in a position to answer questions now

So any of those questions are going to be bounced

off of us if you have some questions that you

would like to pass through us that's ok

And we'll see if they're able to answer

We've asked them to limit any statement to how this

experience has impacted them and reserve any legal questions or

factual questions for their attorneys

Ok

That being said you'll hear next from oh all right

So let me start by saying here uh this is

an absolute point glasses back on

This is an absolute tragedy no matter how it panned

out

Uh you got a 21 year old bright rising star

uh independent young black man from Chicago Illinois who has

taken a path to be independent of his parents to

work as over the road trucker and was doing a

phenomenal job

Uh He found himself here in Vance Vance County and

like I said the facts are still working his way

out but we do know that he uh was found

hanging from a tree

Now I know I've been some statements from the sheriff

concerning what's considered lynching or hanging but I'll show you

the pictures that we saw

It's very clear that he was hanging

Uh not in a matter which you may saw in

the sixties and the twenties and thirties but it was

it's nothing to take away from it

Uh We are here for one reason one reason over

and that that sign says very clear get just for

Jon and the mcgee family uh to ensure that we

get transparency in this process

I know the sheriff they have send this case over

to the State Bure Investigation Attorney General uh to do

a further investigation in this particular matter at this time

Let me be very clear

The manner and the cause of death of Jon has

not been determined at this time the manner cause of

death has not been determined

So for any suggestion that it's a suicide anybody stating

that it was a suicide would be grossly premature right

Lee grossly premature

Well we do know we have a young black man

hanging from a tree in North Carolina when I say

hanging not a traditional feast dangling but nevertheless a tree

a rope was tied to his neck around his neck

and tied to a tree

So the next steps here obviously continued trans uh transparency

from the sheriff office

His family came over to Chicago and Texas

Uh You can imagine the phone call they received about

the loss of their son Jon which was something that

no parent should receive

No parent should should have to bury the child whatsoever

under any under any circumstances

But we are here to ensure that the investigation move

forward

I don't care if it's in Vance County Chicago Illinois

Los Angeles California

You would not call a family and tell them a

suicide and the investigation is not complete

That's invoking Lee and myself Jason and other attorneys and

civil rights activists to come here to make sure the

investigations is carried out properly because anybody no matter who

you are

If somebody receive a phone call as such troubling as

this and say hey this is what we believe would

happen come get your loved one

That's a red flag

The parents wouldn't have they didn't have the opportunity to

see the body or any pictures to even identify J

Von

Today was the first day they saw pictures to identify

that it was in fact Jon

So we need to make sure through throughout this entire

process wherever the facts result may lead we need to

make sure it's a thorough investigation

One thing we can be very clear no matter what

the findings are or an investigation nobody can say exactly

what happened at that particular time

I wasn't there the sheriff or whoever else does the

investigation was not there

We don't have a video over that but we do

know that

Like I said before Jon had a neck had a

rope tied around his neck and that that rope was

tied to a tree

Tree is about what 8 ft off the ground the

limb by 8 ft off the ground

So with that being said we're gonna have more questions

I'm gonna bring up Jason

Uh and I think anybody want for the family speech

or Ok

All right we're gonna bring up Jason Keith

He's a local council in North Carolina

First of all look I would like to say um

we would like to thank Lee Merritt Harry Daniels and

this is Andrew Covington with me for coming

You might ask why are we here Accountability transparency

Um The community needs answers and we're here to apply

pressure

Um Lee has flown in from Texas

Harry's flown in from Georgia

I'm out of Greensboro Covington's out of Raleigh

We're here for answers and we're not leaving until we

get them the family deserves them

And we've seen the videos we've seen the photographs and

this investigation is not complete

This investigation is too premature for any determination to be

made

What happened what we want is we want answers

We want we want them now we want them as

soon as possible and we want the system to work

because this family should not be in a position where

they get a phone call about this young man coming

into this county working his job and that he's found

hanging from a tree and the the the the pictures

it just it's horrible

And this county deserves to explain that spend the resources

to let us know every detail of what happened and

that's what we're here for

And so I think Harry was right

I think Lee was right

I think Covington everybody

We're here to apply pressure and that's what we're gonna

do and we wanna stay as long as it takes

and we're going to talk to who we need to

talk to and we're going to make as much noise

as we need to to get answers to get the

truth and to make sure there's justice for JB R

Right

Um like the other council said we're here to get

answers and justice and we're not gonna leave until we

get that

There's no reason why these answers why we don't already

have these answers and we're gonna work as hard as

we can until we get them a moment ago

Lieutenant Bishop from the Vance County Sheriff's Department uh spoke

with the family at Lyn

Uh The meeting lasted about two hours where we began

to get into the actual evidence that's currently in their

possession

Uh Some significant points were made

I'm open to any questions that you all might have

about that

Uh One thing that we found conclusively and and I'll

back up a moment ago as I mentioned my name

is Lee Merrit

I'm a civil rights attorney

Uh The reason that the family has asked me to

be a part of this case is because we're not

investigating a personal injury case or a wrongful death case

We're we're investigating the lynching of a young man in

2024

Uh It would be a misnomer to say that that

kind of thing doesn't happen anymore

We saw public lynching in the murder of Ahmad Arbery

We've seen public lynchings or the racialized killings of individuals

and it's something that needs to continue to be investigated

and taken seriously

Unfortunately in this country we haven't dealt with our ghosts

of racism and lynching

And so we often want to sweep it under the

rug

The family has brought in these attorneys to ensure that

that does not happen

Uh Concerning what we have found the medical examiner's report

determined that there was bruising along the neck and a

broken neck bone

Uh which means that he indeed uh well we're learning

um we're working on gathering additional evidence to see what

that actually means

I'll stop there and open it up to myself or

the attorneys or any of the members of the family

for questions

So you just use the word lynching

Hate crime has also been thrown out there

What makes you think that's the case as opposed to

other possibilities at this point I don't think it's the

case to answer your question

I don't know that lynching or a hate crime is

in fact the case what we discovered was that Mr

mcgee came into this county on September 11th and he

died by hanging from his neck

The sheriff concluded early on and we believe prematurely that

it seemed to be a suicide to him

Well that doesn't seem to be a suicide for me

I don't know too many 21 year old gainfully employed

happy individuals that travel into North Carolina by a rope

and kill themselves

That that would be an oddity

It's a possibility but we would need more evidence before

we jump to that conclusion

My job the reason I was hired was to investigate

a lynching to investigate the possibility of a hate crime

and take uh to to direct the family to wherever

the evidence goes a little bit from the sheriff about

the timetable leading up to this

But as you mentioned not entirely forthcoming from can you

kind of put together at least from the family standpoint

But beforehand you know the last time he was in

contact with them and the time that the sheriff is

should be releasing a detailed timeline today to the media

I don't know if they'll be having a press conference

themselves but they have indicated to us that a timeline

will be released as best as they can gather do

their investigation

So a as relates speaking to the family to my

understanding JV Young was was uh excited by go to

Houston Texas as many times with his cousins

Uh So there's no indication whatsoever that he had any

ulterior motive or ulterior thoughts as to whether you know

he had any uh thoughts of self demise

So there's nothing here and this and this is let

me be very clear this is why Mr mcgee M

Robeson and her husband are here and the family is

here because there's no indication whatsoever the 21 years he

was on earth that they brought him to this brought

him here and raised him to show any signs that

he would commit suicide

That's why they're here

So to be very clear there's nothing no mental health

anything that capacity no depression

And like Lee said a 21 year old is working

game for employed

Don't come to rural North Carolina and say you know

what I'm gonna end it all here

Doesn't make sense

Any other questions

to

the Walmart video That's the last video that y'all have

seen as the media have seen this time but it's

other its other videos that the family have in fact

received for his going to the Hampton Inn

Uh The question is what was he doing there in

that location where he went to the Hampton Inn they

had no room

So he went to where traditionally truck drivers that's coming

through here would go and normally if you would go

it doesn't make sense to go around with other truck

drivers would be at to go kill yourself

If you're gonna kill yourself you find a road down

here that nobody's down and and and you do it

down there

I mean it does the the facts and the things

doesn't make sense as to a mentality a mindset of

a person who's wanting to kill themselves

Now I understand about the b the rope at Walmart

as a truck driver

It's a lot of reasonable explanations for that

You know you got a lot of times these trucks

and that is a seasoned truck driver

Um a lot of trucks have universal keys that other

doors other keys from other trucks can open if it's

the same make and model

So if my mom sleeping in the middle of nowhere

you gotta think about it

If you're sleeping in the middle of nowhere in a

truck and somebody else can possibly get in your truck

you go around safety with numbers

So it's a lot of reasonable explanations and we believe

why a rope was purchased

You know I know with the optics it looks like

you get a rope

The next thing you found hanging from a tree and

if somebody can jump to that conclusion but look you

know I went to school in North Carolina Central School

of Law

I think it's the best law school in the nation

It's definitely North Carolina

You don't jump now

I know you might not agree

You don't you don't jump from buying a rope at

Walmart and some somebody hanging and say they committed suicide

We got things called evidence of facts that we must

go through and what was lack here at the beginning

of his family

The evidence the facts have not been developed before you

make a conclusion that he killed himself

Not on my watch not on Lee watch

And that's exactly why we're here to support his family

I want to just further your question concerning the outline

of timeline and it's important that the sheriff's office should

release that timeline

There are there's evidence there's witnesses there's additional video showing

up to almost hours before its death

And so there there is a more clear timeline I'm

sorry from the time that we suppose that his death

took place

Yes sir we are still in the investigation in terms

gathering evidence concerning whether or not he was assaulted in

terms in terms of his physical body there's bruising about

his body that could be consistent with him hanging from

a tree and being exposed to the elements for an

extended period of time

There's also an additional way to translate that evidence to

say that he was bruised or hurt or injured by

others

Are you pursuing an independent autopsy at this time No

some I want every legal officer

Yes ma'am depending on the outcome of the investigation

Uh We are speaking with the family and considering uh

additional legal action

Of course based on what the sheriff is saying is

he able to say more to the public or he's

pretty much limited to what he can say to the

public

Well I don't I don't say necessarily think he's limited

what he can say to the public

You gotta be be mindful that it is an ongoing

investigation

You don't want certain things to put out there to

disturb that investigation

So tho those are things that you don't understand is

law enforcement that you don't want to put certain things

out just in case you have a lead for a

possible suspect

So we definitely appreciate and understand that uh that aspect

But but this is something that also that we have

taken consideration you know as this thing continue to play

out and more evidence come in and if authorities uh

you know maybe need additional help that's something we may

be seeking redress from the Department of Justice to trigger

the federal investigation come in because they are using the

lead people to investigate these type of matters especially when

you're talking about a hate crime specifically in the uh

in the federal laws

I don't know if North Carolina have any hate crime

statutes are things that capacity but I know that the

federal government the federal codes in fact do and that's

something we may be invoking considering what the facts and

the evidence may lead us concerning the sheriff's statements to

the public

I think that Mr uh the sheriff has been rather

cavalier about the evidence that he chose to release and

and he's released in a very piecemeal matter that has

actually caused this confusion

I find it distracting that he seems to be more

focused on what's being said on tiktok

Then his responsibility here as the sheriff to get to

the bottom of the uh what happened and then get

that information quickly to the family

Even before he gets them to the media I would

advise him not to do that or or to change

his practice concerning that the information that the public does

not

Yes you try to hold the question to the media

I know you made a lot of people have questions

but in the media have a difference of questions

when the last time you were talking to him um

I talked to him maybe a couple of days before

this happened according to day a couple of days before

it happened you know the questions

So the sheriff or the representative for the family said

that in the preliminary information that they had gotten regarding

the autopsy that there was nothing found under the fingernails

And that that was what who said that the family

representative Candice Matthew and she said that there was nothing

found under the fingernails and that was more cause for

a suspect of foul play

Why is that And if that's the case why aren't

you guys seeking your own separate autopsy Well I think

the question is why is there any you say independent

wounds or anything defensive wounds I think that's what you're

referring to my understanding from the from the investigators from

the preliminary findings

There was nothing to that capacity just because they have

not been done this time

Don't mean it's not ruled out

Uh we still I think the family nails in possession

of Jon's body and we're gonna explore every angle position

to determine what happened

And I think from the uh from the initial statements

we made might have been premature but here we are

the representatives of the family and anything that happens moving

forward we be one speaking on behalf of the family

and and I'm sorry at this time we have not

performed an independent autopsy as the body has been in

the possession of the medical examiner

Uh We are in the process of recovering the body

and the family does plan to move forward with an

independent autopsy at that time

What we have been told is what you've heard from

the sheriff that there there were no defensive wounds on

the body

Thank you

We do know that Jake you know where Well according

to the timeline he was going to the Hampton Inn

here and I don't know it's exactly located at but

the Hampton is fairly close to the Walmart Super Center

here

I think about a half a mile of that

Uh that was his intentions

He went there

Uh he got out of his truck he walked his

own camera he walked in with his bag his belongings

and uh he had a brief conversation with the clerk

and to my understanding upon investigation by the Vance County

sheriff's office that the clerk told him that there was

no uh vacancies uh no availability

Uh so those are things that uh that we believe

that he had intentions to stay there

But for the vacancies he ended up going to and

it's not a truck stop

Let me be very clear

It's a commonly known area I guess where truckers go

I think I think

Yeah

So I think the truck stop thing it's not really

a truck stop

So he went over there and and and that that

was a normal practice for people that's ha hauling los

through here that would stop over there

So at some point he obviously knew that that is

a location and usually truckers and dad can tell you

this truckers feel safer in numbers

You know it doesn't make sense for a person who

you know who had this ideology or mindset to kill

themselves to to come around with other people for safety

numbers

So I mean in that case the person you need

to be safe from is yourself why would you go

around other people on the other surveillance videos that you

guys have seen Are there other people or is there

another person that people should be looking for That investigators

are looking for any cell phone records any indication that

he has any other ties maybe or was there was

another person involved It's other people that had an opportunity

to speak to Jon as such

So they have taking speak to speak to those people

concerning those leads

Uh However as relates to other surveillance videos uh uh

dealing with any suspects

Uh not at this time not that we have been

shown it doesn't mean it won't develop like I told

you guys before you know you know you you you

go to Walmart or whatever the case may be and

you go there you purchase a rope and you end

up being hanging from a tree

You know it's a lot of questions that's in between

anything that transpired in between you know concerns that that

that things would be considered

But at the end of the day the our main

focus here you know and and look don't take anything

away from this

Find out what happened to Jon

This family is is is not here to point the

fingers at the sheriff's office

They want to find out what happened where that evidence

may lead

You know that that's something they can deal with

But at the end of the day the most important

thing is that we are here you are here to

ensure transparency move forward because anybody family black white it

doesn't matter race religion

You will want a thorough investigation to take place for

your loved one

You know you want to know you wanna know what

happened because that's a sign that's a that's a start

of of of of of healing

You know you have missing persons

You know people never found for years

Family can't truly heal until they find out

I don't care what it is

So we need to know this family is here poised

standing here they have brought us home and like I

said we're not here to to to throw darts at

anybody but we are gonna throw darts for a lack

of transparency and a and a quick statement to say

this is suicide

We had this not happened with the rest of his

route

Was supposed to look like after he was done we

don't necessarily have that information

I know he dropped a load here at the Walmart

Distribution Center

Uh like I told you before he was anticipating to

come to Texas uh to spend times with his cousin

So for a further route uh we don't know particularly

that's something that we'll learn

Uh Moving forward at the time his his trailer was

his tractor was did I have a trailer Correct So

there was no there was no trailer on the tracker

So whatever load it was already dropped

So we don't know the exact next route

So any other questions in that area Yes

Yes I believe other truckers parked in the area

From my understanding is that you understand my understanding other

truckers

Uh Not at this time we we don't we don't

know we don't know

All right one more question

Uh I think normally but at this time I think

his family considering what they just heard from the law

enforcement

Uh And I think that given time later on they

would be able to speak out personally themselves about jam

on

Uh but just know this it's an ongoing investigation

No man cause of death

We seek a transparency truth

So with that being said Lee just one moment

Uh And and the family did want to make one

statement before they took off

So uh each member of the family is gonna step

here they're gonna make a brief statement

Uh They're not gonna take any questions

Thank you

Come on we'll go all together for you

You should I just ask that you guys um keep

us in prayer

Um I do wanna I do wanna tell I wanna

tell uh I wanna thank you guys for your support

everybody the world whoever's sin I appreciate

I mean everybody just swiftly supported and that helped us

you know to keep us up in our spirits

Nobody out here wanted to hear this kind of news

Nobody white black his any nationality wanna hear this kind

of news in 2024

Figured we was done with this

Um We're not like you said we're not pointing any

fingers because we still it's still under investigation

Uh But I do wanna let you know what kind

of person Jon was

He was um uh uh very competitive and when he

started driving trucks he didn't I didn't force him to

drive trucks

He came to me he saw my struggle with the

trucking industry and having a company and how now everything

is pretty much down and he saw me go up

and he saw me come down and then I guess

he took it upon himself to to step up because

I said we as black people we don't have nobody

we can put other people on to business

This is like most companies these big companies it's generations

that form these companies

But they start as one or maybe two people and

they grow

And so I didn't have nobody to push that on

And he was one of the first person people that

say hey dad I'm about to go uh I'm about

to go drive you know and I'm like wow well

why you what make you wanna do that He said

I just want to do it

You know I put in my put in my work

and um and that's just how he was

He wanted everybody to be together

That was his heart

Always everybody just to come together

And so if I can if this moment can spark

anything I would if I can tap into him I

would say he want this country to come together

Not all this dividing stuff

We all need to come together because if it wasn't

no divide this wouldn't have happened

And I feel like honestly if he wasn't here he

would still be alive

God bless God bless you

Ok

Thank you guys

No no

Hey I do

Ok I didn't get it

Can you read it for me 8767016

That would be my cell if you 701621587674

And my email for this work is Lee Lee at

Lee Lee Me M er R I TT esq.com E

as in echo S as in Sam Q as in

Quebec

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you