Mario Lorello News Today

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — A Virginia jury has acquitted a man in the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old outside a high school basketball game in 2021.

The 12-member jury took about 50 minutes to find 20-year-old Demari Antonio Batten not guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of Justice Michael Dunham as fans cleared out of the packed game against Woodside High School on Dec. 19, 2021.

A Newport News jury returned the verdict for Demari Batten Wednesday evening. He had pled not guilty in the trial.

More than two years ago, investigators said then-18-year-old Demari Batten shot and killed 17-year-old Justice Dunham after a basketball game at Menchville High.

Virginia’s marijuana laws have changed a lot in the last two years, and while marijuana possession is now legal in the Commonwealth, driving while high is not.

Many in the community are asking why he was granted bond on a murder charge but was repeatedly denied bond on the 30 counts of child neglect and abuse charges.

A federal jury on Thursday found Virginia Beach plastic surgeon John Mancoll guilty of illegally possessing two highly addictive painkillers but acquitted him of charges accusing him of stealing medications from two patients.

It's a case involving a US Navy chief who died after a dispute at a bar in 2022. July 5th of that year will be a day the family of U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Tyler Murphy never forgets.

A first-grade student at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News was taken into custody Friday after police said he shot his teacher inside a classroom. While children that young can be charged with a crime in Virginia, their path through the legal system is much different than it is for older children or adults.

A jury on Thursday handed down a not-guilty verdict in the case of Edmund Hoyt, an off-duty Norfolk police officer who had been previously charged with killing a Chesapeake man.