Trial starts in Rock Hill Instagram drug deal killing caught on video
.jpeg "A North Carolina man is on trial for murder and other charges in York County after a fatal shooting in 2022.")
A murder trial began Tuesday against a North Carolina man prosecutors say shot a man to death on video during an Instagram drug deal ambush at a Rock Hill apartment complex in 2022.
Yet lawyers for Joe Lemans Gore say he was not involved in the drug deal, and shots were fired during a chaotic scene where the deceased had a gun and had fired shots himself.
Gore, 25, of Fayetteville, N.C., is accused of murder, attempted armed robbery, and two gun charges in the Jan. 22, 2022, death of Deshawn Barnes, 26, in a parking lot on Celanese Road west of I-77.
The shooting happened after a drug deal was set up through the Instagram app between Barnes and another person who was a stranger to Barnes, lawyers in the case said. The deal went sideways and Barnes died after being shot.
The trial is in York County criminal court at the Moss Justice Center.
Another shooter that night, Jaelon Devon Kelly, 26, is serving a 22-year sentence in a South Carolina prison after pleading guilty in 2024 to voluntary manslaughter and other charges.
Prosecutors: Gore Lay in wait for Barnes
Gore was among a group who went to the apartments where one of the people was going to buy marijuana from Barnes, prosecutor Marina Hamilton told the jury during opening arguments. Gore and Kelly, despite it being a frigid cold night, went up a nearby hill and lay in wait for minutes during the deal with the plan to rob Barnes, she said. Gore and Kelly then came out from behind a dumpster and started firing at Barnes.
Barnes was shot twice from behind, Hamilton said. She called what happened “callous behavior” and a “disregard for human life.”
“The attempted armed robbery was unsuccessful, but what they did succeed in was the murder of Deshawn Barnes,” Hamilton told the jury. “All of this was caught on surveillance video.”
Gore fled after the killing, Hamilton said. He was later identified by investigators and found in Cumberland County, N.C., before he was extradited to face the charges.
Barnes had a gun that he fired in self-defense, Hamilton said.
Defense: Chaos, but not murder
Barnes’ death was “an absolute tragedy” but that doesn’t make it murder, defense attorney Benjamin Hasty of Carolina Criminal Defense told jurors during opening statements. Hasty described the scene as “seconds of chaos.”
Gore was only in Rock Hill to visit Kelly, a friend, and a woman he had become close with, Hasty said. He was not involved in the drug deal but went to the scene with others he had been hanging out with.
Hasty, who is defending Gore with lawyer Stephanie Wood, claimed Barnes went to the drug deal armed with a gun he had bought “in the street” to protect himself because he had been robbed before in a marijuana deal. Barnes fired at Gore and Kelly during the confrontation during the drug deal among strangers where everyone was nervous, Hasty argued.
There was no malice to prove murder and there was nothing taken from Barnes, so there’s no proof there was any attempted robbery, Hasty told the jury. Barnes fired his gun at Kelly and Gore, yet prosecutors are trying to turn that chaos of the gunfight into murder, Hasty said.
The video “doesn’t show the fear that was going on,” Hasty said.
The video of the shooting is expected to be played for the jury in front of visiting Judge Eugene Griffith. The trial could take several days.
