SAVANNAH, Ga. — A mistrial was declared Friday in the murder case of a Savannah State University student from Lithonia, Christopher Starks, after a jury could not agree on any of the 10 counts against the man charged in his death.
Closing arguments had been made Thursday in the trial against Justin Devon Stephens, NBC station WSAV in Savannah reported. Stephens was facing charges that included murder and aggravated assault.
Starks was shot and killed in 2015 in the student union on the Savannah State campus. The 22-year-old was on a football scholarship and, his family told 11Alve’s Joe Henke ahead of the trial, had a bright future.
“Our goal was to let him go to college. Make sure he goes to college and better himself, and he did that,” Starks’ father, Ray Starks, said in May. “He was where he was supposed to be, and as a father that is what you can really ask.”
According to WSAV, prosecutors framed the case as one in which Stephens escalated a fight into a deadly shooting, with multiple witnesses testifying they saw him shoot Starks.
The defense contended there was not sufficient evidence to clear a reasonable doubt burden.
Starks graduated from Miller Grove High School in DeKalb County. His mother told 11Alive in May the family was still seeking closure in her son’s death.
“Christopher did not deserve to lose his life,” Sharon Starks said. “It’s a lot of, ‘Why?’ This didn’t have to happen. It’s just a lot of emotion.”
For nearly three years, police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigated Starks’ murder, but no arrests were made until April 2018, when a grand jury indicted Stephens for felony murder.
In 2016 the family also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Savannah State University – saying that the shooting would have been “preventable” if more security would have been in place.
WSAV reported the judge said the case will be rescheduled, though when is not yet clear.