NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Prosecutors and police failed to provide enough evidence for a murder indictment against the 18-year-old who was charged with the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old last week.
Grand juries are tasked with indicting people who are charged with crimes. They decide whether there is enough evidence that the accused may have committed a crime and prosecution should move forward.
It is an extremely easy standard to meet, and it’s therefore rare for grand juries not to indict.
A 2009 study found, across more than 162,300 charges, a grand jury declined indictment only 11 times.
Keyondre Russell was charged with murder and two weapons offenses for the fatal shooting of Jayjon Burnett at a Queens subway platform on Oct. 14.
A grand jury decided on Friday to indict him for the weapons charges but not the murder charge, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
The grand jury likewise declined to indict Russell on lesser charges of homicide or manslaughter, Burnett’s family told the New York Post.
Russel is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 3 for the weapons charges.
Russel’s lawyer said the 18-year-old was also shot during the incident, and speculated that the bullet may have passed through his leg and hit Burnett.
“My client is a victim — not only a victim being jumped, but of a gunshot,” Legal Aid Society lawyer Peter St. George Davis told the judge at Russel’s arraignment. “It seems to me that this is a case that is not a murder case… I don’t believe that it’s a manslaughter case. I don’t believe that it should have even been charged.”
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