JEFFERSON COUNTY — The Jefferson County jury trial of 25-year-old Mt. Vernon man accused of shooting another man to death in his Mt. Vernon home is set to begin today.
(Source: MVPD)
Dewayne Moore is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the alleged August 30, 2015, shooting death of Cortez Pickett.
Pickett was murdered at his home on South 19th Street in Mt. Vernon. He was reportedly found lying on the floor in his house, and was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy indicated he was shot once.
At the time of his arrest for the Cortez murder, Moore was already in the Jefferson County Jail on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident related to a vehicle crash around the time of the murder. He is also facing separate charges of felony obstruction, and felony manufacture with the intent to deliver cocaine.
A 27-year-old man recently convicted of armed robbery is expected to testify in Moore’s murder trial. As part of his plea agreement Steven Collier not only agreed to cooperate in another murder case and in other robbery cases, but also in the Cortez Pickett murder case.
Moore was initially appointed Public Defender Sean Featherstun to represent him in the murder case. Featherstun eventually withdrew from the case, but as Featherstun is being sworn in at the end of the month as Jefferson County’s newly elected state’s attorney, he would be unable to prosecute him without a conflict of interest.