NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A double murder trial involving teenagers enters Day 2 at the Newport News Courthouse.
Prosecutors said Amareon Eley was 15 years old when he killed fellow teenagers Erek Wright and Tyree Spady in 2019.
Now, Eley is 20-years-old and the five-year-old case is moving forward in court after a judge declared the first a mistrial, because of an error with a juror.
Newport News Police said detectives found the two teenagers shot multiple times outside of Heritage Forest Apartments in 2019. Wright died at the scene, and investigators said Spady died hours later.
On the stand, forensic analysts said they found multiple shell casings and recovered a BB gun from the scene.
One analyst said he went through the victims' phones and discovered a connection to then-15-year-old Eley.
The witness said Eley had argued with one of the victims about a stolen gun. Eley, who was already in police custody for an unrelated robbery, allegedly confessed to investigators that he knew the victims and was there the night of the shooting.
According to court documents, Eley implicated another Newport News teenager, Anthony Santiago, and told police it was Santiago who pulled the trigger. Eley also allegedly told investigators that he and Santiago planned to rob the victims and steal a gun.
Eley said the robbery turned violent when one of the victims refused to give up the gun. However, Eley said it was the other teenager who killed Wright and Spady.
Eley has entered not guilty pleas for both charges of murder. The defense is expected to bring their first witness to the stand on Thursday.