Springfield man found guilty of murder in 2014 drug deal gone awry
A Springfield man was found guilty by a jury Wednesday of killing a 21-year-old man in 2014 after a meth deal went awry.
Brian S. Jones, 41, faces up to a life sentence in prison for murdering Charles J. Cortez.
Neither the prosecuting attorneys nor Jones' defense attorneys contested that Jones fatally shot Cortez in a car in north Springfield following a deal for meth.
They disagreed on why Jones shot and killed Cortez.
Cortez was found in the 1800 block of North Weller Avenue on Oct. 6, 2014. He was suffering from several gunshot wounds and later died at the hospital.
Probable cause statements say Jones and a woman were giving a ride to Cortez and two others, and when the group arrived at a house on North Weller Avenue, Jones pulled out a handgun and began to shoot inside the car.
During the closing arguments of the jury trial Wednesday, prosecutors argued Jones killed Cortez, a complete stranger, over about $200 worth of methamphetamine.
"It's pretty simple — murder for drugs," said Nathan Chapman, an assistant prosecuting attorney for Greene County. "(Cortez) was trying to get out of that car when he was shot."
Jones' lawyers argued their client only fired at Cortez because Cortez was pulling what appeared to be a gun on Jones.
This introduced a second point of contention in the closing arguments: whether or not Cortez had a BB gun at the time of the shooting.
The defense lawyers pointed to BB gun pellets and carbon dioxide cartridges found in the car as evidence that Cortez had a BB gun on him. A good friend of Cortez's also testified that Cortez frequently carried a BB gun.
The prosecutors said Cortez never had a BB gun. They pointed out that no BB gun was ever found at the scene of the shooting and that Jones was not forthcoming about saying he had a gun pulled on him and was vague when he finally mentioned it to investigators.
The prosecutors also said the three other people present in the car with Jones and Cortez did not recall seeing a BB gun and only one recalled seeing Cortez reach toward his waist.
Jones was also convicted of armed criminal action Wednesday, which carries a minimum sentence of three years in prison.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place March 2.
Murder charges dropped against co-defendant
Jones initially had a co-defendant in his murder case: Devon Gallop.
During the closing arguments Wednesday, Gallop, 38, was described as Jones' girlfriend who sat in the passenger seat of the car during the 2014 shooting.
Murder charges against her were dropped in June, and Gallop was sentenced to four years in prison for second-degree assault instead.
The four-year sentence was part of a plea agreement with Gallop for assaulting a man with a croquet mallet in an incident unrelated to the killing. She testified during Jones' jury trial.
According to a 2014 probable cause statement filed by police, one of the people in the car the day of the killing, Jason Moreno, said he ran from the car when Jones pulled out a gun and heard at least three shots as he was running away.
A witness in the neighborhood said he heard gunshots, then saw a Toyota Camry drive from the Weller house. He said the car stopped quickly, a woman got out and pulled Cortez out of the car and "threw him onto the ground" before getting back in the car and leaving, according to the statement.
Lebanon police contacted Springfield officers the next day to say they had located what they believed was the car that fled. Lebanon officers attempted to stop the car, but the driver fled and eventually crashed the car, the statement says.
The driver fled the scene but officers found a handgun in the car, the statement says.
Springfield police searched the car after obtaining a warrant and found "evidence related to the shooting and the death of Cortez." They also found information identifying Jones and Gallop, the statement says.