One house; Three murders One year apart

Laura Young
ECB Publishing, Inc.

One year ago, on Monday, Aug. 23, 2021, at approximately 6 p.m., the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO) responded to the East Clark Avenue area of Monticello in reference to multiple gunshot victims. Upon arrival, two victims were found. Lyndon Dawson, age 23, and Jamien Davis, age 21, both died as a result of gunshot wounds.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, State Attorney's Office investigators and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) processed the scene, collected evidence and talked to witnesses. A $10,000 reward was offered for tips leading to the arrest of a suspect, 15-year-old Christian Venisee.
He was located several days later in Tallahassee and was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals.
Initially, Venisee was charged with second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and shooting into an occupied building.
JCSO Investigator Dan Williams updated the Monticello News in a phone interview on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022, explaining that a video that was recovered in connection with the Aug. 23, 2021 crimes, along with lab results and ballistics reports, showed that Venisee had shot into the East Clark Avenue home but had not hit any person. According to Inv. Williams, Venisee left the scene but later returned, took a gun from Davis and hid it. That gun was recovered, and evidence showed that Davis and Dawson had shot each other.
Based on the evidence, the murder charge against Venisee was dropped, and on June 27, 2022, he pleaded no contest to shooting into a building, tampering with evidence and possession of a firearm by a delinquent. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, Venisee, now 16 years old, is serving a two-year sentence at the Suwannee Correctional Institution in Live Oak, Fla.
Interest in this case recently resurfaced when at 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 23, 2022, exactly one year from the date of the Dawson - Davis murders, the JCSO once again responded to a reported shooting at the same home in the area of East Clark Avenue in Monticello. The victim, 70-year-old Essie May Copeland, was transported to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital by Jefferson County EMS, but succumbed to her injuries later that same night.
Williams told the News that he could not comment further, as investigation of Copeland's death is still ongoing.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 997-2523 or Big Bend Crime Stoppers online or by calling (850) 574-8477.