State Attorney Worrell Defends Dropped Charges in Jones High School Shooting

ORLANDO, Fla. (FNN) – Another real-life episode of Law & Order unfolded during State Attorney Monique Worrell’s press conference at her office Wednesday.

Worrell provided a detailed explanation for why her office has chosen not to prosecute the 17-year-old suspect in the shooting at outside a Jones High School football game that resulted in 19-year-old Gamaine Brown losing his life on November 12, 2022. She shared that her office couldn’t prosecute in the case due to insufficient evidence for a second degree murder charge.

She said the witness that spoke with law enforcement evidently didn’t recognize the suspect when shown a picture of him and, since the suspect was wearing a mask at the time, could only be identified by his clothes, but the witness’s description of what the suspect wore didn’t match the clothing the suspect was actually wearing on the night in question.

“The witness identified the shooter by a nickname that was different from the nickname that the suspect who was arrested went by,” Worrell explained. “The witness did not know the person she identified, and she had never before seen their face. Complicating matters, at the time of the shooting, the person who shot and killed Mr. Brown was wearing a mask. So, the witness must have only been identifying the shooter by their clothing,” she said.

“Although we deal with tragedy on a daily basis in our office, I can’t begin to imagine the pain that Mr. Brown’s family is dealing with right now, especially given the circumstances of the deal of their child,” Worrell said.

“I spoke with Mr. Brown’s father recently, personally, to explain our office’s decision and to encourage him that we are still willing to work with the Orlando Police Department regarding the prosecution of any suspect that is presented to us,” she said.

She also referenced her initial comments on OPD’s handling of the case and said she regrets the harshness of her criticism.

Orlando Police Chief Eric Smith issued a statement on Tuesday in response to Worrell’s initial remarks about the case.

“It is both disappointing and disheartening to see the unfair criticism coming from the State Attorney’s Office regarding the hard work of our detectives pursuing justice for the victims and their families in this case,” Smith said in his statement.

“It is difficult to obtain and maintain witness cooperation in a homicide case. In this case, we had one witness willing to come forward and received zero tips to Crimeline. It is troubling that the State Attorney’s office released active and detailed investigative information that has hindered this ongoing investigation,” Smith said. “At no point did we say this investigation was over.”

Worrell said that her office finally nailed down dates to meet with the other law enforcement agencies for training on “building better cases”: April 13th and 14th.

“Our goal is to work collaboratively with our law enforcement officers for the safety of our community,” she said.