A Tucson man has been sentenced to prison in connection with the drive-by shooting that killed a University of Arizona student during an off-campus house party in April 2024. Tevion Matthew Beale received a 12-year prison term and was given credit for 714 days he has already served in custody. In addition to the prison sentence, Beale was placed on five years of probation after entering guilty pleas to drive-by shooting and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Photograph of the University of Arizona student who was killed in the 2024 off-campus shooting, shown in coverage of the suspects' sentencing.
The sentencing of Beale is the second punishment handed down to defendants tied to the same violent incident. Earlier, in April 2026, 19-year-old Marcus Ian Williams was sentenced to 14 years in prison and five years of probation after pleading guilty to the same charges: drive-by shooting and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Authorities arrested Williams, Beale, and two others in the probe of the shooting that claimed the life of 20-year-old Erin Jones and left three other people wounded.
Court records and statements from law enforcement show that four people — Williams, Beale, Estevan Garcia and Akeem Alvarez — were taken into custody following the April 28, 2024 shooting. The incident unfolded at a house party in the 3200 block of East 5th Street, in a neighborhood near Country Club and Alvernon, in the early hours of the morning. Tucson Police Department officers responding to the scene found Jones with gunshot wounds; she was transported to a local hospital and later died. Three other victims — identified by investigators as a man, a woman and a teenage girl — sustained injuries but survived.
Courtroom photo of a defendant in an orange jail uniform seated during a sentencing hearing related to the 2024 drive-by shooting.
Beale’s sentencing follows a guilty plea in which he admitted to the charges of drive-by shooting and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The court acknowledged that he had already spent 714 days in custody, credit that reduced the remaining term he must serve behind bars. The five years of probation will follow his prison term and are part of the sentence imposed by the judge after the plea and any hearings related to sentencing.
Williams’ plea and earlier sentencing set the precedent for how some defendants in the case were resolved. He entered guilty pleas to the same two charges and was given a 14-year prison sentence along with five years of probation in April 2026. The sentences for Williams and Beale represent the outcomes for two of the four people arrested in the case; the remaining two defendants face different legal trajectories.
Estevan Garcia and Akeem Alvarez remain in custody facing murder charges related to the death of Erin Jones. Both men have trials scheduled in the coming months, according to court filings. Prosecutors have moved forward on murder counts for Garcia and Alvarez while resolving the cases involving Williams and Beale through guilty pleas to charges tied to the shooting and aggravated assaults. No additional sentencing information about Garcia or Alvarez was released at the time Beale’s sentence was announced.
The shooting devastated friends, family and the university community when word spread that a 20-year-old student had been killed after attending what witnesses described as an off-campus party. Investigators with the Tucson Police Department have been working to piece together what led to the exchange of gunfire on the 3200 block of East 5th Street shortly after 1:40 a.m. on April 28, 2024. The department has previously confirmed the sequence of events as investigators developed the case that led to four arrests and multiple charges ranging from aggravated assault to murder.
Court proceedings in the aftermath of the deadly shooting have included multiple appearances, pleas and the scheduling of trials for defendants who are contesting charges. With two defendants already sentenced after entering guilty pleas, the focus in the courthouse now turns to the upcoming murder trials for the remaining two suspects. The legal process will continue to unfold as prosecutors and defense attorneys prepare for trial dates set in the months ahead, and as the community follows a case that began with a fatal night in April 2024.
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