PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A Portsmouth courtroom was filled with tears on Tuesday as a woman testified about the moments leading up to a murder in her Portsmouth home.
Charisse Mills, 29, testified in the jury trial for Anthony Allen Worlds on Tuesday. 30-year-old Worlds is accused of shooting and killing Elbert Brown Jr. 33. The shooting happened at Mills’ home in the 200 block of Wilson Drive, where she was hosting a game night.
Mills testified that she and Brown had been friends since childhood. He was at her home when she decided to host a last-minute game night with a small group of people on Oct. 20, 2018. Mills testified that Worlds also came over to the house for the game night, but she did not know him personally. He attended the party with a man Mills went to high school with.
Worlds was friendly and sociable at the beginning of the night, Mills testified. She said that Brown left the party to pick up food from IHOP in preparation for the game, which would involve drinking. While Brown was at IHOP, Worlds also left the home briefly. Brown returned to the Wilson Drive home with the food, and Mills was eating when Worlds returned to the house, too. He was upset.
Mills testified that when Worlds returned to the home, his demeanor changed. He was looking for a pack of cigarettes he’d had earlier in the evening, and he was angry and cursing. Mills said Worlds was being disrespectful, and she asked him to leave the home. Worlds told Mills that she’d have to call the police to get him out of the house. The man who brought Worlds to the party began “tussling” with him and eventually pushed him out of the house, and Mills closed and locked the back door, she testified.
Worlds was gone for about 10 minutes when he came back to the house and began banging on the back door, demanding his cigarettes, Mills testified.
“He was doing the most over cigarettes,” she said.
Mills was going to open the back door for worlds, but Brown offered to do it. Brown cracked open the back door, then announced to the room that Worlds had a gun. Mills was standing behind the back door and tried to push it shut on Worlds, but she said she was unable to. She could not see Worlds, but she told the jury she could identify him by his voice.
Mills said Brown and Worlds had a verbal exchange, and Brown handed Worlds a cup through the door. Then, as Mills watched, Brown was shot. He stumbled backward and fell onto the ground in her living room, near the kitchen bar, she testified.
“He hit the ground, his eyes rolled back in his had, he took his last breath, and he was gone,” Mills told the jury.
Mills said that Brown wasn’t armed and that he hadn’t been aggressive toward Worlds.
A prosecutor played the 911 call that Mills made around 12:15 a.m. on Oct. 21, 2019 — right after Brown was shot. During the call, the jury could hear Mills screaming to the dispatching and telling them “my brother was shot.”
“He’s dead,” she wailed to the 911 dispatcher. “Oh my god, he’s dead!”
Mills got very emotional and cried when she listened to the 911 call from the witness stand. The judge ordered a five-minute recess so Mills could take a break from testifying. Outside the courtroom, Mills wailed and stomped her feet. A group of people there to witness the murder trial gathered around her and prayed for strength.
The jury trial is scheduled to continue into Wednesday and Thursday.
Stay with WAVY.com for updates.