A Virginia family is expressing outrage that a murder charge was dropped against a man who investigators say admitted to shooting and killing their loved one.
D’Mari Norris, a young father, died after he was shot three times outside the Mount Vernon Square Apartment Homes in Fairfax County in late August 2022. He was shot twice in the chest and once in the face.
In court on Monday, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office dismissed the murder charge against the accused killer. Norris’ family accuses prosecutors of failing to vigorously prosecute the case, as prosecutors defend their decision.
“They're not doing their job as the public voice — being the voice of the victim and giving the victim a chance to speak, because he’s not here to speak anymore," said Norris' mother, Denita Norris Blackwell.
Family and friends of Norris left court dejected and angry on Monday after prosecutors dismissed the charge.
Norris Blackwell first spoke out about the case last year, after initial charges were dropped
at a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors said they were awaiting forensic results.
A grand jury later returned a direct indictment against Francisco Juares for second-degree murder.
In their motion to dismiss, prosecutors wrote that an eyewitness saw two men pushing one another. After the gunfire, Juares told a resident who rushed out of the apartments, “They tried to rob me,” and said Norris pointed a gun at him. Juares did not make a statement to police.
Investigators say evidence showed Norris had a gun that day and it had been fired twice. It was found a distance from his body.
To support their decision to drop the case, prosecutors wrote: “The Commonwealth has no evidence to refute the defendant's self-defense evidence and therefore cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that malice — the intent necessary for Second Degree Murder – existed on the part of the defendant. With the facts such as they are, it would be unjust to continue with this prosecution.”
Norris’ family was upset that prosecutors were recently switched in the case.
"The police want this tried just as bad as we do, but you as the prosecutor get to make the decision, and that doesn’t happen," said Norris' aunt Shadae Norris. "How is that anywhere near justice for anybody?"
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Norris’ mother said that even if Juares would have been acquitted, a trial would have helped answer the family’s questions.
"My family really wants to know what happened," she said. "That’s our biggest thing is we want to know what happened," she said.
"They are saying it's self-defense, but we don’t know why he did this," she said. "So to my family, he’s still a threat to all of us."
Loved ones plan to write letters to Virginia’s attorney general expressing their concerns.
