Two charged with capital murder in Jaxon Bearden’s death in Ensley

At 10:06 p.m. on October 24, Jaxon Trew Bearden was pronounced dead at UAB Hospital. The 21-year-old from Alabaster had been shot less than an hour earlier in Birmingham’s Ensley neighborhood, according to coroner information reported by WBMA. ¹

Two men now face capital-murder charges in his death: Darius Ramone McConis, 18, of Birmingham, and Ja’Maries Antonio Robinson, 20, of Mobile. The charges, announced October 26, move the case beyond the initial detention of two unnamed suspects. A woman was also wounded in the shooting. ^{7 2}

The development answers who police accuse and what charges the men face. It does not establish either defendant’s guilt, and the available reporting still leaves the circumstances of the gunfire unexplained. The prosecution must prove its accusations against each man in court.

Officers were dispatched to the 2400 block of Avenue B at about 9:14 p.m. on October 24 after a ShotSpotter gunfire alert and a report that someone had been shot. WBMA’s account, citing Birmingham police, does not establish which notification came first. Officers found a man with an apparent gunshot wound, and Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service took him to UAB Hospital with life-threatening injuries. ²

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office subsequently identified him as Bearden and placed his injury at approximately the same time and location. Police had initially withheld his name while his family was being notified. The identification and the earlier police account concern the same Avenue B shooting, not separate incidents. ^{1 2}

The wounded woman reached UAB by private vehicle. Police described her gunshot wound as non-life-threatening, and she was treated at the hospital. Her identity has not been established in the available reporting, nor has a later condition or discharge update. The initial description should not be mistaken for confirmation that she has fully recovered. ²

Police said officers from the North and South precincts detained two suspects after receiving information about the shooting. The later charging account puts the arrests within roughly 30 minutes of the gunfire. That is an approximate interval, not a verified booking time. ^{2 7}

The two were initially held at Birmingham City Jail on 48-hour felony holds pending formal charges. At that stage, police had released neither their names nor the charges they might face. The October 26 identification of McConis and Robinson and announcement of capital-murder charges supersede that earlier account. ^{2 7}

A temporary hold and a criminal charge are different stages of a case; neither is a conviction. The precise starting times of the holds have not been established, so the reference to 48 hours cannot be used to calculate a verified release deadline or infer that either man was released.

Birmingham police designated the case as the city’s 35th murder investigation of 2026. In the initial account carried by WBMA, the department also noted that FBI reporting guidelines do not require agencies to include justifiable-death investigations in their homicide counts. That makes this an agency investigation count—not an independently reconciled total of every shooting death in Birmingham, and not a count of convictions. ²

For now, the clearest change is legal: two previously unnamed detainees are now named defendants facing formal accusations. The confirmed human consequences remain Bearden’s death and the woman’s injury. Establishing how the shooting unfolded, and what each accused man did, remains the work of the investigation and the court process.