Trial reset for Cedar Rapids man charged with killing 15-year-old Illinois girl

CEDAR RAPIDS — A new trial date has been set for a Cedar Rapids man accused of fatally shooting a 15-year-old Illinois girl on the southwest side nearly a year ago.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Paul Miller granted the new date of Dec. 6 for Marshawn Rome Jackson, 19, because of scheduling conflicts for the prosecution and defense. The trial previously was set for Sept. 27.

Jackson is charged with first-degree murder, intimidation with a dangerous weapon and person ineligible to carry dangerous weapons. He is accused of killing Tyliyah Whitis, 15, of Peoria, Ill.

The teen was found dead in the driver’s seat of her sister’s car July 21, 2021. The car had crashed at the Hawthorne Hills Apartment Complex in the 2200 block of C Street SW.

Jackson remains in jail under a $1 million bail. He was in jail a few weeks before being charged in the slaying because a prosecutor was seeking to revoke his probation on a trafficking stolen weapons charge.

According to court records, a judge gave Jackson a deferred judgment and probation about a month before this shooting.

The teen’s parents, Amanda Guzzle of Peoria, Ill., and Michael Whitis of Waterloo, told The Gazette their daughter was a talented basketball player and played on an AAU team in Peoria. Her father said she also played soccer when she lived and attended school in Cedar Rapids.

Tyliyah attended Harrison Elementary in Cedar Rapids from second to fifth grades — from December 2013 to June 2017 — and started sixth grade at Roosevelt Middle School in 2017 before moving to Peoria with her mother.

Tyliyah had been in Cedar Rapids for a few weeks to visit her older sister, T’yanna Nesby, who is Guzzle’s daughter. Nesby told The Gazette after the shooting that she found out her sister had been shot when she reported her car missing that morning.

Her parents both said they didn’t think their daughter knew Jackson. Both said Tyliyah was popular and loyal and didn’t have issues with anybody.

Guzzle and Whitis told The Gazette that police haven’t given them a possible motive for the killing, and both are eager to learn during the trial why their daughter was killed.

A mother of a friend of Jackson’s also was charged for helping her son and Jackson flee the city after the shooting. Stacy Lynn Shanahan, 41, of Davenport, is charged with being an accessory after the fact and obstruction of prosecution, both aggravated misdemeanors.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com