The Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office today announced the guilty plea of Jalen L. Cook for four counts of Aggravated Assault (Counts 1-4) and one count of Possession of a Firearm during the Commission of a Felony (Count 5). Cook pled guilty in Glynn County Superior Court and was sentenced to 20 years to serve 18 years in the Department of Corrections for Count 1, 20 years to serve 18 for Counts 2-4 to be served concurrent to Count 1, and 5 years probated consecutive to Count 1 for Count 5 by Judge Stephen Scarlett. The prosecution team of Deputy Chief Whitney J. Gregory and Assistant District Attorney Ada Zeno took the plea before the Court.
On December 26, 2023, the day after Christmas, a young family of four were driving down Highway US-17 to Jekyll Island to celebrate Christmas with extended family. The husband-father was driving. The wife-mother was in the front passenger seat. In the back in car seats were their three-year-old and ten-month-old sons. As they approached an intersection near the ports at Joe Frank Harris Blvd by the Sidney Lanier Bridge, with a green light, two cars pulled out turning right without stopping or yielding (colloquially, a California roll). The Defendant was driving the second car to pull out without the right-of-way. The husband-father was forced to quickly maneuver the car to safety, and he did what any normal person would do and honked his horn. This apparently upset the Defendant, because the Defendant then merged back into the lane the victims were now in and rode on their back bumper in an aggressive manner. The Defendant then quickly zoomed over to the passenger-side of the victims’ vehicle and fired a 9mm into the window. The wife-mother was leaned forward looking in the mirror trying to fix her mascara. The bullet went through her chin, inches from killing her, and ricocheted off the husband-father’s chest. The Defendant fled the scene. Through their investigation using objective surveillance video, car registration records, and employee records, Glynn County detectives identified the Defendant as the shooter.
The trial was to commence on Monday, September 30. Instead, the Defendant decided to take an open-ended plea after having previously rejected a plea offer of a fixed term of years. The State presented photographic evidence and victim impact through live testimony. Notably, the wife-mother noted that her toddler frequently asks, “Is the bandit going to get us this time?”
Feeling “disrespected” on the road over an innocuous honk in reaction to a situation he caused is not justification for such gun violence. If the victim-mother was leaning just an inch forward, or if the speed of one of the cars was just slightly faster or slower, we could have been here for a murder.
The District Attorney’s Office would like to thank Glynn County Police Department, especially Det. Paxton Edgy for his tremendous work on this case.
Members of the media with further questions may contact the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office at 912-554-7200.
