Two Augusta men are on trial this week for murder in the 2019 death of Brian Harris Jr.
Harris was 18 and the passenger in a car that had just made an early-morning stop at the Chevron on Gordon Highway at Olive Road on April 19, 2019.
Prosecutors in Richmond County Superior Court said as the vehicle was leaving, the now 30-year-olds Keshun Carswell and Artavius Ward pulled in front of them, got out and shot Harris in the backseat.
A witness testified Tuesday that she’d driven Harris, who went by “Rocky,” to the Chevron and waited while he got out of the car, then returned.
The men walked up, said something to Harris then shot him from either side of the car, she said.
But there was more to the story, she testified while being cross-examined by Keith Johnson, attorney for Ward.
She hadn’t initially told police there was someone else in the vehicle with them, that Harris had a gun, and that he was at the store to make a drug deal.
She drove more than four miles in the opposite direction of a hospital as Harris bled in the backseat.
Carswell was arrested shortly after the incident, while Ward was arrested several months later in Newport News, Va.
The two suspects were indicted for malice murder, felony murder and pointing a gun at two others. They have been jailed without bond since their arrests.
Representing Carswell, attorney Tanya Jeffords filed a motion to get the two men tried separately, but it was denied.
The case is being prosecuted by Chief Assistant District Attorney G. Kevin Davis and ADA Cedric James.
Evans trial underway
In an unrelated case, prosecution continued Tuesday in the trial of Kendrick Dante Evans.
Evans, 39, was indicted last year on two counts of aggravated child molestation, child molestation and tampering with evidence.
Evans has been in jail since his 2021 arrest.
