PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Even after the prosecution’s star witness was caught texting while under cross examination the day before, he gave more testimony Thursday in the Portsmouth murder trial for Raymond Gore, charged with killing four people at a boarding house on Maple Avenue.
The jury is expected to get the case Friday.
The texting was bad enough, but it was also determined that witness Michael Canty lied to the judge about it. That put him in jeopardy for perjury because he was still under oath.
Canty wrote three texts Wednesday afternoon, at least one of them while under cross examination. He was texting his sister.
The profane text messages were critical of the Commonwealth, saying “the prosecution f’d up he May get off.”
Another text read, “they don’t make no sense they don’t have their S together.”
Gore’s defense attorney, Michael Massie, used the incident to try and get all of Canty’s testimony dismissed.
That was denied.
So then, the Commonwealth had to grant Canty immunity to be able to discuss what was in the texts in front of the jury.
Canty returned to the stand, and Massie went through a litany of more than 20 of Canty’s felony convictions.
Canty was a block away when Gore allegedly killed four people in the boarding house on the corner of Maple and Randolph avenues in June 2022.
Ashley Merricks, Giorgio Lee and Oleisha Mears were all dead at the scene. Samuel Jones died a couple days later.
Gore faces twelve felony charges, including four counts of aggravated murder for the deaths of Merricks, Lee, Mears and Jones. It’s unclear whether Gore will testify.
The Commonwealth’s only eyewitness in the case is Canty, who was standing a block away at the corner of Randolph and LaSalle. Canty claims he saw Gore walk to the front door and shoot Merricks.
But both the defense and even Judge Brenda Spry have pointed out inconsistencies in Canty’s testimony, regarding a vehicle he saw and where he was standing.
“Your entire case rests on one man’s testimony,” Spry said to the prosecutors. “Michael Canty has not been truthful or consistent.”
Wednesday’s first full day of testimony was rocky in the quadruple murder trial for Raymond Gore. The proceedings stopped and started several times because of unexpected developments in the courtroom.
Commonwealth’s witness Michael Canty, described by prosecutor Chris Warman as the star witness, was escorted into the courtroom by a total of nine deputies. Gore’s defense attorney Michael Massie objected and asked for a mistrial, saying the implication to the jury was that Canty needed so much protection because Gore might jump up from the defense table and attack Canty.
Spry dismissed the motion for a mistrial, but conceded it was the most deputies she had ever seen escorting a single witness into a courtroom.
Canty testified he saw Gore shoot the first of the four victims — Ashley Merricks, 34 — as she opened the front door of the Maple Ave. boarding house. Canty said he was a block away, standing at the corner of Lasalle and Randolph. Merricks’ body was found just inside the entrance.
Three other victims were found shot inside.
Oleshia Mears was found dead in a closet, Georgio Lee was shot while in bed, and Samuel Jones was at the top of a staircase, wounded, but alive for a few more days.
In a bizarre development, Canty’s testimony stopped when a sheriff’s deputy confiscated his phone. He later told the judge he was texting with his sister from the witness stand while he was being cross examined.
The Lee family is caught in a nightmare that won’t go away.
On the morning of June 7, 2022, four residents of a boarding home on Maple Avenue were shot; three died on the scene, including Poquoson native 33-year-old Georgio Lee.
“Oh, it’s like a hole in everybody’s heart. And we don’t really know which way to even think or to go with this until the trial goes through itself and see how it comes out in the end,” said his uncle Ronnie Lee.
For the opening statement in a jury trial against suspect Raymond Gore, the prosecution painted the gruesome scene inside the Maple Avenue home.
The defense says the case, which was previously dismissed during a preliminary hearing, will fall apart again based on testimony from two so-called jail snitches.
For example, the defense says before Jones died he reportedly told a police officer who was wearing a hot body camera the suspects were two young black men.
The older of the Gores is 58 years old; his codefendant, a nephew, is in his early 40s.
Regina Mobley: Do you have confidence as the prosecution is moving forward with this evidence?
Shecora Lee: I have more confidence now than we did the first time, because the first time was just like a slap in the face to all of us. And this time, I think they have all the information.
Stay with 10 On Your Side as testimony will begin Wednesday. The defense says it has statements from one victim, made on police body camera, that will prove police have the wrong men.
Co-defendant Antwann Gore is due in court for a jury trial on June 20, 2024.