Detectives say a landlord-tenant conflict inside a Brandon apartment became a murder case within minutes.
BRANDON, Fla. — What began as an attempt to remove a man from a Brandon apartment ended with him dead on the floor and the married couple tied to the unit facing murder charges, according to investigators who say the fight turned violent at the apartment’s front door.
At the center of the case is not just the gunshot that killed Travon Jackson, 30, but the chain of events that led to it. Detectives say James Sidney Llanos and Lizeina Marie Cepeda had been subletting their apartment to Jackson and went inside on March 9 to evict him. Authorities say an altercation followed and Llanos shot Jackson. The sheriff’s office and court filings described in local reporting show investigators are treating the encounter as more than a domestic dispute or tenant disagreement. They say it became a burglary-related homicide once the couple entered and used violence while trying to force Jackson out.
The first public facts paint a tight and chaotic timeline. Deputies responded shortly before 5:45 p.m. to the 1800 block of Lake Chapman Drive, home to the Lakewood Place apartment complex. There, deputies found Jackson dead from an apparent gunshot wound. By the next day, detectives announced the arrests of Llanos, 47, and Cepeda, 39. The sheriff’s office said investigators learned the couple had rented the apartment to Jackson and then returned to remove him. That detail matters because it shifts the story away from a random act of street violence and toward a deadly confrontation over possession of a home, control of a doorway and the use of a firearm during a personal dispute.
According to court filings summarized by FOX 13, Llanos told detectives that an eviction order had been filed by the apartment complex and that he and Cepeda went to the unit because Jackson needed to leave. He reportedly said Jackson tried to push them out and that he swung his gun at Jackson but missed. Witnesses reported hearing Llanos yell, “Let go of my wife,” followed by, “I’m going to kill you.” Investigators say the front door was partly shut when Llanos fired a single round through it, striking Jackson. Cepeda told detectives that Jackson had grabbed her by the neck earlier in the struggle, but investigators say she also stated he was not doing so when the shot was fired.
Those details give the case its sharpest dispute. Defense lawyers could point to the reported struggle and Cepeda’s statement about her neck to argue fear and panic. Prosecutors, however, are likely to focus on the threat witnesses said they heard, the claim that the door was partially closed and the allegation that the shot came after the immediate contact had changed. The sheriff’s office has already taken a firm position on the seriousness of the episode. Sheriff Chad Chronister called it “a senseless act of violence that cost a man his life” and said detectives moved quickly to identify the people responsible. Even in its early stage, the case has been framed as an avoidable killing during a forced removal, not a split-second encounter between strangers.
The charges show how broadly investigators are viewing the alleged roles of both defendants. Llanos is accused of first-degree murder while engaged in a burglary and armed burglary of a dwelling with assault or battery involving a firearm. Cepeda is accused of first-degree murder while engaged in a burglary and burglary of an occupied dwelling with assault or battery. In practical terms, prosecutors appear to be alleging that the crime began before the shot, with the entry and confrontation inside an occupied home. That means the case may turn as much on who had the right to be there and how they entered as on the exact instant the gun was fired.
Jackson’s death also leaves a human gap that the public record has only begun to fill. So far, authorities have released his name and age, but not many details about his life before the shooting. What is clearer is how ordinary the setting was: an apartment complex in Brandon, an argument over living arrangements and a call for help that turned into a homicide investigation. The scene, as described by investigators, suggests a conflict that built in private and then exploded in a narrow space where anger, fear and a weapon met within seconds. That is what makes the original crime itself the heart of the story.
As of now, both defendants remain jailed after a judge ordered them held pending a pretrial detention hearing. That hearing is expected to be the next point where investigators lay out more of what witnesses saw, what each defendant told detectives and how prosecutors plan to prove that the confrontation amounted to murder during a burglary.
Author note: Last updated March 13, 2026.