CORRECTION: The story has been updated to reflect that the murder weapon has not been recovered in the shooting death of Jahari George, only that a gun was found on the passenger floor of a vehicle being driven by Anthony Pugh.

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NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A jury is deciding the fate of a Norfolk man charged with the murder of a Norfolk State University student two years ago. The jury began deliberations late Thursday afternoon, and will resume Friday at 10 a.m.

Cameron Brown is charged with first-degree murder in the Labor Day weekend death of Jahari George, who was in the driver’s seat of a parked car on Gatehouse Road when the Commonwealth alleges Brown shot up the car in a drive-by shooting.

In closing arguments, Brown’s defense once again attacked the credibility of the prosecution’s key witness, and the Commonwealth told the jury that the case is based on more than the testimony of a teenager facing multiple felony charges in an unrelated case.

Lead defense counsel Michael Massie told the jury “you can’t rely on Anthony Pugh.” Pugh was 17 at the time of George’s death and a friend of Brown’s. Pugh still has active charges of aggravated malicious wounding in a convenience store incident that happened 15 days before George was shot and killed. Pugh implicated Brown two months later.

Prosecutor Philip Bailey closed the Commonwealth’s case arguing that Pugh testified completely and believably when he said Brown admitted that he killed George, showed him the weapon (a Glock 26 that was never recovered), and said to Pugh, “I’ve got to get rid of it.”

An FBI agent testified Thursday morning that phone records show that a phone associated with Brown was in the immediate area just off the NSU campus at 11:09 p.m. Sept. 2, 2023, when George was shot dead. He was pronounced dead at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital less than an hour later.

Earlier evidence connected shell casings found near the car where George was killed to similar shells in a Blue Dodge Charger that Brown commonly drove, and was believed to be used in the shooting, based on surveillance video.

If convicted on the murder charge, Brown could face life in prison.

Besides the first-degree murder charge, Judge Devon Paige instructed the jury that they can consider second-degree murder in the case, which would not require premeditation. Brown also faces charges of malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle and the use of a firearm in the commission of murder.

Paige threw out some of the lesser charges against Brown, who was originally charged with three counts of malicious shooting into an occupied vehicle before two of those charges were thrown out. Later, before the jury got the case, a firearm charge was also dropped.

Wednesday

The key witness for the Commonwealth testified Wednesday against Cameron Brown, on trial for murder in the September 2023 drive-by shooting death of Norfolk State University student Jahari George, 20.

Anthony Pugh testified for three hours Wednesday. He implicated Brown as a suspect in the shooting death of George. Later Wednesday, a detective went through a compilation of all the surveillance video surrounding the deadly drive-by shooting.

The Commonwealth said Brown was circling the area around the Norfolk State campus the Saturday of Labor Day weekend 2023. A detective walked the jury through a compilation video where the blue Dodge Charger, connected to Brown, pulls up next to the car where George was seated in the driver’s seat.

The detective said based on audio from one of the videos, he determined it was fired from an automatic weapon in a quick burst. George was taken to the hospital, where he died a few hours later at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

Earlier, Pugh testified that in a conversation hours after the deadly shooting, Brown set a Glock pistol on a table, which Pugh recognized as one that Brown had carried earlier that night. According to Pugh‘s testimony, Brown said, “I’ve got to get rid of it.”

Defense attorneys pointed out inconsistencies with Pugh’s testimony when compared with earlier statements to police and successfully got DNA evidence excluded. Both sides agreed that a proper chain of custody could not be established for some of that evidence.

The jury should get this case by Thursday afternoon.

Tuesday

The murder trial for Cameron Brown, charged with the 2023 shooting death of Norfolk State University student Jahari George, continued Tuesday, as the jury saw images of the car where George was shot and killed.

George, his girlfriend and two friends were parked in a white Dodge on Gatehouse Road Oct. 2, 2023 near the Spartan Suites residence. Brown is charged with a drive-by shooting that killed George as he sat in the parked car.

The jury in Brown’s murder trial saw forensic photos of the car. It had five bullet holes in the driver’s door and window, with another three bullets striking the passenger window next to it. Two bullets passed through the driver’s headrest. George was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where he died from his wounds.

Norfolk detectives developed a description of a suspect vehicle connected to the shooting — a 2021 blue Dodge Charger. They had gathered video from the Norfolk State campus system, a nearby Ring camera, Hampton Roads Transit’s stop at Ballantine and Interstate 264, and from a Walmart and Wawa on Princess Anne Road. It was in the parking lot of those stores where police pulled over the blue Charger six days after George was killed.

The car had fake temporary Maryland tags and a VIN number cloned from a similar vehicle. Behind the wheel was Anthony Pugh, 17. On the passenger floor was a gun, an extended magazine and several bullets.

Pugh was facing charges in an unrelated triple-shooting that happened two weeks before George was killed. Pugh would name Brown as a suspect in George’s murder. Pugh was released from detention, but his charges remain active.

Monday

For the second time in four months, a murder trial is underway involving the shooting death of a Norfolk State University student two years ago.

Cameron Brown is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jahari George, 20. In the first trial connected to the case, Camari Warren was acquitted of murder in George’s death.

George was in a parked car with three friends on Gatehouse Road near the Spartan Suites residence, where he was killed in a drive-by shooting the night following a Norfolk State football game Sept. 2, 2023.

In Monday’s opening statement, prosecutor Phil Bailey told the jury that all of the evidence, including testimony from the surviving friends, forensics and and law enforcement, will show that it was Brown who shot and killed George with a Glock 26 pistol that had been “switched” to enable rapid fire.

Defense attorney Eric Korslund said none of the evidence places Brown in the blue Dodge Charger that passed by the moment George was shot and killed.

George’s three friends, including his girlfriend who owned the car, were the first to testify Monday. They were smoking weed, listening to music and talking as they sat in her white Dodge, according to testimony. His girlfriend fought back tears as she described for the jury hearing the shots and then seeing George slumped to one side. She testified that she could not see the driver of the car from where the shots were fired.

Judge Devon Paige gave George’s friends and family advanced warning before the Commonwealth played bodycam video from a responding university police lieutenant. A handful of them left the courtroom.

The video showed the officer’s arrival to the scene on Gatehouse Road, with the driver’s door of the Dodge standing open. “Medics now!” the officer screamed into her radio. “Check his pulse!” she told other officers. She testified they found a weak pulse, conducted CPR and transported George to the hospital, where he died.

During the trial for Warren, a Norfolk Police detective testified that he believed Brown to be the one who shot George. A friend of both Warren and Brown, Anthony Pugh, also testified that Brown, who was driving a stolen blue Dodge Charger at the time, noticed George, along with several others, parked nearby Pugh’s vehicle, leading to a six-minute phone call with Warren.

The detective who testified in Warren’s trial also stated the phone call ended the very moment the fatal shots were fired.

Pugh is scheduled to testify once again in the current trial. He was 17 at the time, but was charged with a triple shooting at a 7-Eleven less than three weeks before George was killed. Pugh was a friend of both Brown and Warren and agreed to testify against them.

Although the shooting charges remain active against Pugh, Korslund told the jury Monday he is “just trying to stay out of jail.” Pugh told Warren’s defense attorney in July that he was expecting some benefit from his agreement to testify in the Warren and Brown trials.

Korslund showed the jury a picture of Pugh holding a gun with an extended magazine, and said it was Pugh who was arrested in the blue Dodge Charger less than a week after George was killed.

“This is somebody you should be in fear of,” Korslund told the jury, referring to Pugh.

If convicted on the first-degree murder charge, Brown faces up to life in prison. The trial is expected to last through Thursday.