Crime and Courts

Shooting Victim's Mom Protests Decision to Drop Murder Charge

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A Northern Virginia woman says her family is left in a fearful limbo after a murder charge against her son’s accused killer recently was dismissed.

D’Mari Norris was shot multiple times outside his Mt. Vernon Square apartment in August. A good Samaritan tackled the accused shooter and held him for police.

D’Nita Norris Blackwell was at work when she got the terrible news about her son from her mother-in-law.

“She paused, and then she said, ‘Someone murdered D’Mari,’ and I screamed,” she said through tears. “I said, ‘No, no, no.’”

Police charged 22-year-old Francisco Juares with second-degree murder and a firearms charge, But at a preliminary hearing Feb. 7 the prosecutor called only one witness, the responding police officer, and the judge dropped the charges, saying not enough evidence was presented.

“It’s very careless concerning the victim, the way that they’re handling it,” Blackwell said. “But I also know that when you want to get something done, you can get it done. So, I do think that they should have handled it way different.”

Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said Norris’ family had been briefed about what could happen. The key witness – the Good Samaritan – had been deployed abroad and was unavailable to testify. Descano also says forensic results were not yet back from the lab.

“We weren’t unprepared; we have yet to get what we need back from the lab,” he said. “And, quite frankly, we explained that to the victims beforehand and we let them know that there was a very, very good possibility with the lack of forensic evidence that this was going to happen.”

Descano also says dropping the murder charge changed very little because Juares was already out on bond.

But Norris’ mother says there’s a big difference for her family: There are no longer bond conditions to keep the accused in check.

“He can carry a gun, he can use his passport, he can come in contact with us if he feels like it, and he can come into Mt. Vernon Square,” she said.

This is the second time in recent months murder charges have been dropped in a Fairfax County case at a preliminary hearing. In the other case, the charges were later reinstated, and the commonwealth’s attorney says that’s the plan in this case. Once the forensic evidence is in, they’ll likely take the case to a grand jury and seek an indictment there.

“So anytime that’s delayed, we’re just sitting here struggling to know what happened to our baby that day,” said Norris’ stepfather, Bryan Blackwell.

The next grand jury session meets the third week of March.

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