Lieth MohammadOregon State Police
A judge this week dismissed charges against three people arrested in the fatal shooting of a southern Oregon man during a suspected home-invasion marijuana robbery pending a grand jury hearing in the case.
Josephine County Circuit Judge Lindi Baker on Monday dismissed all charges against Lieth Mohammad, Nicholas Scarnechia and Kacey Ann Brunson, court records show. They were all arrested in California shortly after the killing.
A grand jury continues to hear witness testimony in the Nov. 4 killing of Jason A. George and could still return an indictment, said Josephine County Deputy District Attorney Matt Corey. Logistics in rounding up some witnesses delayed the case, he said.
A police investigation of the killing also continues, Corey said. He didn’t know when the investigation or grand jury process would be complete.
George, 25, was killed at a home in O’Brien, an unincorporated town about five miles north of the Oregon/California border, a state police detective said in a search warrant affidavit. Two witnesses, including George’s girlfriend, told investigators that at least two men came into the home and one of them shot George in the head after George pulled a gun.
The girlfriend told investigators the shooter claimed he shot George in self-defense, the affidavit said. The intruders then took marijuana drying in the house and drove away, said the other witness.
The affidavit identified the shooter as Mohammad, the son of the property owner who lived in California. He, Scarnechia and Brunson was arrested in California four days after the shooting during an unrelated police marijuana raid.
Mohammad was accused of aggravated murder, murder, first-degree burglary, first- and second-degree robbery, unlawful use of a weapon and felon in possession of a firearm in George’s death.
Scarnechia and Brunson were accused of first-degree burglary and first- and second-degree robbery. Scarnechia also was accused of murder.
— Everton Bailey Jr.
ebailey@oregonian.com
503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey
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