After a 19-year-old woman was shot to death on Charleston's West Side last Fourth of July, police described a shootout between two men, Danny Fortune and Clarence Murray.
Murray was charged with Sheena Graves' slaying, but prosecutors dismissed that charge. Now, police say the second man, Fortune, might not have had a gun.
"At this point in the investigation, we have no evidence that Danny Fortune fired any shots - or had a firearm, for that matter," Charleston Lt. Steve Cooper, who is chief of detectives, said this week.
Fortune and Murray also were shot during the incident last summer.
When police arrived, they found Fortune bleeding on the ground outside an apartment at Littlepage Terrace, Cooper said.
Murray, 39, had faced a murder charge in Graves' death, and malicious wounding, in Fortune's shooting. Prosecutors dismissed those charges in November, saying the shooting needed more investigation. Murray is now awaiting a May 31 sentencing hearing on a federal charge of distributing methamphetamine. Federal prosecutors filed that charge the same day Kanawha County prosecutors dismissed the murder and malicious wounding charges.
At the time the murder and malicious wounding charges were dismissed against Murray, Assistant Kanawha prosecutor Maryclaire Akers called the case "complex."
"There were multiple shots fired and at least two individuals shooting guns, possible three," Akers said last year. "As a result, the case will need substantial investigation and will rely on forensic testing which is not yet complete. ... The state will continue investigating. After further investigation is complete, a decision will be made as how best to proceed in the future,"
Fortune, 36, of Beckley, has never faced charges stemming from the Fourth of July shooting.
Earlier this year and seven months after the incident at Littlepage, in a separate matter, federal probation officers wrote to a judge asking that Fortune's supervised release be revoked. Fortune has been under federal supervision for several years after serving a prison sentence for a drug charge. There is no mention by probation officers of the Fourth of July shootings.
Fortune was charged Jan. 8 by State Police in Beckley with driving on a license that had been revoked for DUI and driving with an obstructed windshield, according to probation officers. Both charges are misdemeanors.
About a week later, on Jan. 15, Fortune was arrested in Beckley and charged with unlawful possession of a deadly weapon by a convicted felon. According to probation officers, who cited a criminal complaint filed in Raleigh County Magistrate Court, Fortune was the passenger in a vehicle police pulled over for alleged traffic violations.
While searching the vehicle, officers say they located two plastic medicine bottles containing small amounts of cocaine in the front passenger door compartment. Under Fortune's seat police allegedly found a .25 caliber Tanfoglio Giuseppe Model 27 firearm, probation officers wrote.
Fortune was arrested and has been in the Southern Regional Jail since his arrest. The charges are still pending.
U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver scheduled a hearing for April 4 to decide whether Fortune's supervised release should be revoked.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.