NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A day before a Norfolk murder suspect was to go to trial, the charges against him were withdrawn.
24-year-old Davon Richardson was charged with second-degree murder two weeks after the shooting in 2016.
“I just feel real happy right now,” Richardson said. “It’s probably the craziest thing that ever happened to me. It’s stuff that you only see in movies, police getting the wrong guy.”
The trouble began for Richardson on July 15, 2016. He was hanging with friends on Norfolk’s 49th Street when there were gunshots. 24-year-old sailor Dante Lewis was killed in the back of a car. Lewis was a Chicago native.
A witness told police Richardson pulled the trigger.
“I told them ‘you all got the wrong guy,'” Richardson told police. “It wasn’t me.”
Richardson sat in jail for 17 months. Last summer, his defense team of London Crounse and Andy Protogyrou got a copy of surveillance video of the shooting. They had it enhanced and found things just didn’t add up.
“The description of Davon didn’t fit the description that’s in the video,” Protogyrou said. “The person who gave the description is herself in the wrong place that she gave when she was under oath.”
Protogyrou said the witness was also on her cell phone and never saw the gunshots, and at one point you can see someone running from the scene with what appeared to be a gun hanging out of a pants pocket. Richardson wasn’t even in the picture.
“We contacted the commonwealth and said we think you need to see our enhanced videos,” Protogyrou added. “You have to see what we have.”
In January, prosecutors allowed Richardson to bond out of jail and months later withdrew the murder charge. They agreed he wasn’t the shooter and said there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed.
“Yeah, I’m a free man now, ready to just enjoy life like I should be,” Richardson said.
Protogyrou told 10 On Your Side he isn’t able to release the video, because the case is once again an ongoing murder investigation.