Left inset: Mindy Osteen (Bradford County Sheriff's Office). Right inset: Christopher Jones (GoFundMe). Background: Auntie Lili's Daycare in Starke, Fla., where Mindy Osteen gunned down her children's father as he was picking up their kids on Friday, July 25, 2025 (Google Maps).
A Florida woman is headed to prison after gunning down the father of her children as he was picking them up from daycare.
Mindy Osteen, 35, has been sentenced to 100 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and other charges related to the July 2025 shooting attack. Police said she blasted her children's dad, Christopher Jones, multiple times with a 9 mm handgun while saying, "You got to die," at their kids' daycare in Starke, which is about 45 miles southwest of Jacksonville.
"Please, let the monster die," Osteen told Jones as she pumped bullets into him at Auntie Lili's Daycare, according to her arrest report.
At least six other children and two employees were inside the daycare at the time of the evening shooting attack.
"Chris, you can't kill [redacted]," Osteen said after firing, according to the arrest report. It is not clear who Osteen was apparently referring to. The children's individual names were redacted from the report.
"I'm not killing nobody," Jones replied.
Witnesses told cops that Jones was trying to load the kids into his vehicle when Osteen set upon him with an Arex Delta 9 mm pistol that she had hidden in a backpack. Security footage allegedly showed Osteen lurking close by before she started firing at Jones, according to the arrest report.
"[Jones] puts in the car seats in the back seat of his vehicle as Mindy follows and watches," the report said. "Christopher is sitting in the driver's seat with the driver door opened. Mindy walks directly up to Christopher and fires three shots as she backs up slightly. She then walks back up to Christopher and fires two more shots. Christopher can be heard screaming."
Bradford County Sheriff's deputies arrived on scene and Jones told them Osteen was responsible for the shooting.
"I'm right here y'all," Osteen told the deputies. "I done it in self-defense."
Jones was rushed to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Osteen was booked on charges of first-degree murder, cruelty toward a child, weapon possession, and larceny. Court records show that she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a felon, discharge of a weapon or firearm during school activity or within 1,000 feet of a school, shooting or throwing deadly missiles into dwellings, buildings or vessels, and grand theft of a firearm.
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