Police: Pullen Road shooting victim staged robbery before being shot

Police say the victim in a fatal Pullen Road shooting, in which two people have been arrested, was confronted after he staged a burglary at the home of the prime suspect.

Two men have been arrested in what is being described in court records as the unintentional shooting of Jacob Diehl.

On June 25, Rohn Vause was charged with manslaughter, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, two counts of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The 38-year-old has also been charged with mishandling of human remains.

On Wednesday, Thomas Bryant, 20, was arrested near Marianna on charges of accessory after the fact and mishandling of human remains for his role in the June 24 homicide.

Bryant, of the Alford Community in Jackson County, has not yet been booked into the Leon County Detention Facility. 

The duo, according to the Tallahassee Police Department, moved Diehl’s body to a rural, dead end road near Lake Talquin in Gadsden County. His body was found buried in a shallow grave under a piece of fencing off Anns Alley on the west end of the lake.

Court records indicate that Rouse came home at about 3 a.m. June 24 to find the back door of the townhouse damaged and Diehl inside.

The two argued, according to a witness and Vause, and during a struggle, Diehl was shot in the head. Multiple witnesses pleaded for Vause to call 911, but he refused, saying he did not want to go to prison.

A short time later, he was seen cleaning the floor before the witness went to sleep inside the home. Investigators said it appeared people involved in the incident had been drinking and using drugs throughout the night.

The witness contacted the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office to report the incident, prompting a search warrant to be served and Vause to be questioned by TPD investigators.

During the search, a handgun was found on top of the refrigerator along with a spent shell casing. A bullet was found on the floor and bleach was found nearby.

Diehl’s wallet was inside Vause’s Cadillac and blood evidence was found in the bed of a blue pickup truck in the driveway.

Other witnesses confirmed Vause and Diehl struggled during an argument over an apparent break-in. They didn’t believe the shooting was intentional.

“W2 said that Vause did not intend to shoot Diehl and it appeared as though the gun discharged accidentally while Vause was striking Diehl with the pistol,” investigators wrote.

Vause told investigators he learned Diehl had staged a burglary and assumed he had been robbed. He admitted to “slapping Diehl around” before he told him to leave.

He said he wanted to search Diehl for stolen items when Diehl pulled a handgun from his waistband and pointed at him before he was able to wrestle it away. He confirmed he began hitting Diehl with the gun when it fired and that afterward he wrapped the body in a blue tarp and loaded him into the pickup truck.

Vause and Bryant drove to a hotel on North Monroe Street and tossed Diehl’s personal belongings, which was captured on surveillance video, before driving to Gadsden County to bury the body.

Vause said he believed the gun Diehl pulled on him was one he kept inside the townhouse.

“Vause took the firearm from Diehl,” TPD investigators wrote in their report. “While striking Diehl with the firearm, caused the firearm to discharge unintentionally.”

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.

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