Charges dropped against 2nd person in 2022 Portsmouth quadruple homicide
Nov 12, 2024
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Charges were dropped Tuesday against a second person in a 2022 quadruple homicide in Portsmouth Tuesday.
Online court records indicated that all charges against Antwann Gore in connection to the shooting deaths of Georgio Davonta Lee, 30; Oleisha Deanna Mears, 37; Ashley Merricks, 34; and Samuel Jones, 66, were dropped in Portsmouth Circuit Court ahead of a jury trial that had been set to begin Wednesday. They were shot to death at a boarding house on Maple Avenue.
Gore had faced four charges of aggravated murder and four charges of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
A jury in January took just an hour before finding Raymond Gore not guilty of all charges against him after he had been charged with the killing of Lee, Mears, Merricks and Jones.
Previously: Raymond Gore found not guilty on all charges in quadruple murder case
Raymond Gore had originally faced 12 felony charges, including four counts of aggravated murder in connection to their deaths, however, those charges were consolidated and the jury deliberated over just six charges, including one aggravated murder charge that named all four victims.
Portsmouth General District Court judges had previously dismissed a case against Raymond Gore due to conflicting evidence and testimony, and dismissed another one against Antwann Gore due to a lack of evidence.
However, a grand jury indicted Antwann Gore in January 2023, and Raymond Gore in March 2023.
Previously: Bond denied for suspect in Portsmouth quadruple murder case
Raymond Gore's attorney, Michael Massie, had shown a massive Monopoly card during the closing argument of that trial, referring to the prosecution's star witness, Michael Canty, who said he had been trying to make an arrangement on sentencing for recent probation violations. In the past 25 years, Canty had been convicted of more than a dozen felonies.