Ex-SRJC student pleads no contest in Rohnert Park prostitute shooting

A former Santa Rosa Junior College football hopeful pleaded no contest to attempted second-degree murder and attempted robbery Wednesday in the shooting of a prostitute at a Rohnert Park motel, Sonoma County District Attorney officials said.

Ronnie Threadgill, 24, of Santa Rosa reached an agreement with prosecutors to serve 22 years in state prison for the July 2, 2015 shooting that paralyzed a 24-year-old Sacramento woman, prosecutors said. He also admitted to enhancements for using a gun and causing paralysis.

The woman, identified in court as Kenisha Jackson, was wounded in the leg and the back of the neck and is now quadriplegic, prosecutors said. Threadgill is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 20.

“This is a just outcome to a senseless shooting with tragic consequences,” District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in a statement. “This defendant chose to use a gun to commit a robbery. He shot an unarmed female who posed no threat to him, nearly killing her.”

Threadgill met Jackson online and arranged to meet her at room 139 at the Motel 6 on Commerce Boulevard. They arranged a price for sex - $190 - and then afterward Threadgill emerged from a bathroom with a gun in his hand and demanded all Jackson’s money, according to police testimony during a preliminary hearing. Threadgill became angry after Jackson said she only had the money he gave her, and he shot her twice. Threadgill ran from the room, pistol-whipping the woman’s pimp who had rushed to the door, and fleeing across the parking lot to a getaway vehicle, according to police.

Threadgill’s former roommate, Koa Sibley, picked him up from the motel and drove him home.

Sibley, who was 19 at the time of the shooting, drove Threadgill to and from the motel and was paying for food at a nearby fast food restaurant when the shooting occurred at the motel, according to his lawyer.

Sibley pleaded no contest in November 2015 to a misdemeanor charge of being an accessory to a crime in exchange for testifying in the case.

Both Threadgill and Sibley were attending the junior college and training to play football at the time.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com.