NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Keith Bryant was found not guilty Friday in the 2019 killing of William & Mary athlete Nate Evans after a two-hour deliberation by the jury.   Second man accused in 2019 murder of W&M student testifies The first trial of Bryant in April 2024 ended in  a mistrial due to a hung jury. He’s been in jail awaiting trial for a total of three years.  Evans, 19, was a sophomore at the university.   He was shot just east of Old Dominion University’s campus outside of a party on 43rd Street. The shooting was Norfolk’s second homicide of 2019.  “Mr. Bryant is relieved to finally be exonerated after having been in custody for three years,” defense attorney Mario Lorelli told us outside the court. “There are no winners here; It's a sad day for Nate Evans, his family. ... "Our hearts obviously go out to them. But this has been pending for six years now, and we think the true killer is out there.”  Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Ramin Fatehi hoped for a different outcome. “Here in Norfolk, we are not afraid to try hard cases,” Fatehi said in a statement. “We do it every day, because we owe victims and the accused their day in court.  While we wish the result had been different, we respect the process and the jury’s verdict.”  The week-long trial was marked by evidentiary setbacks for the prosecution, the reprimanding of a police sergeant by the judge for withholding evidence and witness testimony by the other man charged in the case, Kri’shawn Beamon.  William & Mary remembers football player killed in Norfolk shooting Bryant and another man, Kri'Shawn Beamon, were both charged with murder in the case, though only one gun is alleged to have been used. Now, Bryant is a free man after being found not guilty of homicide and not guilty on his weapons charge. The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office confirmed that Beamon’s trial is still slated to go forward. A trial date will likely be set next week.  On Thursday, the prosecution attempted to introduce phone records they said tied Bryant to the scene — apparently GPS placed a phone number registered to a relative at the scene. The judge ultimately blocked its admission, however, ruling that there wasn’t a clear enough connection to Bryant.  The Commonwealth then told the judge that they had another witness that could testify to Bryant’s whereabouts that night, but that they would have to call him in.  Midway through the fourth day of prosecution evidence, the judge again ruled against the Commonwealth.  At that point, the only hint that Bryant had been at the scene of the crime came from Beamon’s testimony.  “At the end of the day, this was a case that was predicated solely upon the testimony of a single person who has been caught lying time and time and time again, that they knew was lying — and they put him on the witness stand anyway,” Lorello said. “And I think the jury saw right through that; they didn't believe him.”  The day before, a detective in the case produced an ATF gun trace document that hadn’t been turned over to the prosecution or the defense. This drew normal proceedings to a halt, replacing them with a series of sidebar conversations, recesses and heated questionings of the witness.  Ultimately, the defense would call the man who took credit for purchasing the murder weapon on Thursday, their only witness.  Cedric Windley told the court that an associate of Beamon’s gave him the money to buy the gun from a pawn shop in Suffolk, and that the man had even picked out the Glock himself.  On cross examination, the Commonwealth’s Attorney asked if he knew Bryant; he did.   In a last-ditch effort to build a connection to the phone tracked at the scene, the prosecutor quickly asked if his number matched the one they were attempting to submit as evidence.  No dice.  “The key thing is that, since the last trial, the Commonwealth and the investigators — they went out and did what they should have done from the beginning, which is track down the firearm and [find] out who purchased the firearm,” Lorello told us. “And it turned out that their star witness, Kri’Shawn Beamon, was involved in the purchase of the firearm — and that could have been known six years ago.”  Beamon told police Bryant was the real killer after spending three years in pre-trial detention. He’s been out on bond since.  “This is a tragic death of a young man and it should never have happened,” Lorello said outside the courthouse. “And certainly Mr. Bryant and his family are relieved that he's been exonerated at this point, but it's a bittersweet win for everyone because a murder occurred and today, to date, no one's really been [held] accountable for that.”  ...read more read less