1 suspect a fugitive, the other held without bond
Uncle, nephew face murder charges after June shooting left 4 dead in Portsmouth
A couple months after four people were killed during a grisly shooting at a Portsmouth boarding house in June, police arrested two suspects.
The men, Raymond Gore and nephew Antwann Gore, were charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and other related offenses. Both were ordered held without bond.
But at preliminary hearings late last year and earlier this year, two Portsmouth Circuit Court judges determined prosecutors failed to establish enough evidence to send their cases to a grand jury. The judges dismissed the charges and the men were set free.
A few weeks later, prosecutors from the Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office went to a grand jury anyway — as the law allows — and obtained indictments charging both men with the same offenses. Arrest warrants were issued immediately.
Antwann Gore was indicted Jan. 5 but remains a fugitive, court records show. Raymond Gore, 57, was indicted late last month and turned himself in Monday.
The shooting happened June 7 at the corner of Maple Avenue and Randolph Street. Davonta Georgio Lee, 30; Ashley Merricks, 34; Oleisha Deanna Mears, 37; and Samuel Jones, 66, were killed. All had been shot multiple times. Jones, however, didn’t die until a few days later.
At a bond hearing Friday for Raymond Gore, defense attorneys Michael Massie and Nathan Chapman asked Circuit Judge Johnny Morrison to allow their client to remain free on bond while he awaits trial. Morrison denied the request.
Gore’s wife of nine years testified during Friday’s hearing that her husband has been caring for her terminally ill brother since being released from jail last month. She also said he hasn’t left Suffolk, where they live, since he was set free.
Massie argued that the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Canty, has offered conflicting statements and is not credible. Canty conceded he hopes to get favorable treatment in a pending violation of probation and failure to appear case in exchange for his cooperation in the murder case.
Canty testified at Raymond Gore’s preliminary hearing last month that he’s known him for many years. He said he saw Raymond Gore and Antwann Gore outside the house the day of the shooting. He also said he saw Raymond Gore knock on the door before hearing shots.
Massie pointed to the description of the shooters Jones gave police before he died, in which he said they were two young Black men, as another reason to question the charges against his client. Raymond Gore is 57 and has a head full of gray hair, Massie said, which doesn’t fit the dying man’s description, he said.
Senior Commonwealth’s Attorney Haille Hogfeldt argued that whether Canty is a reliable witness is up to a jury to decide. Hogfeldt also offered additional information in the case that hadn’t been shared.
She said the day after the shooting, Raymond Gore was heard telling someone that he wasn’t going to let anyone get away with killing someone in his family — an apparent reference to a relative who had recently died.
Hogfeldt also said a woman who lived in the boarding house heard Merricks open the door and then heard someone ask, “Where is she?” The woman said she then heard Merricks respond, “She’s upstairs,” before hearing gunshots.
Hogfeldt pointed to the seriousness of the crime and the fear that witnesses have expressed as reasons to keep Raymond Gore behind bars while the case is pending. The prosecutor offered no evidence, however, of any witnesses being threatened when asked by the judge.