Not Guilty of Murder
Not Guilty of Murder
On September 12, 2007, Preston Roe was acquitted of the December 6, 2005 murder of Jerald Simms. In a case tried by Horace Hunter of the law firm of Hunter & Lipton, PC in the City of Richmond Circuit Court, a jury took only an hour to find Roe not guilty of the crime of first degree murder.
The case involved what appeared to be a dispute between two drug dealers in the New Town area of the City of Richmond. The victim, a known drug dealer, was found dead from a single gun shot wound to the chest in the late afternoon of December 6, 2005. The investigation quickly turned to Preston Roe as the primary suspect due to the fact the murder weapon could be traced to him. However, Roe had a very credible explanation as to why he was in possession of the murder weapon not long after the murder and the jury appeared to believe him.
The problem with the prosecutions case was that their primary witness, Antoine “Tony” Wooten, was the likely perpetrator of the crime. Wooten was the drug king pin of New Town at the time of the murder. In fact, Wooten had recently been sentenced to 22 years in federal prison on drug and conspiracy charges. In exchange for his testimony against Roe, Wooten was hopeful of getting half off of his federal sentence. However, at trial, Wooten was not a credible witness and appeared to be caught in several lies. Moreover, he is the one who it appeared was most likely to have committed the crime. He is the one with the most motive as well as the opportunity.
This case is a glaring example of how innocent people are often accused of committing some of the most serious crimes. That is why it is important to be vigilant of the rights of defendants and strictly scrutinize the government when it attempts to incarcerate one of its citizens.
RSS Feed
Contact Us
Ph: (804) 780-1235
Fax: (804) 780-2355
Mailing Address:
217 East Clay Street
Richmond, VA 23219