2nd trial underway for suspect in shotgun murder of young Tri-Cities father-to-be
A 24-year-old man is on trial for a second time in connection with a 2018 Kennewick robbery-turned-murder.
Jurors will decide if Lawrence Isaiah Groce was the man holding the shotgun that killed 18-year-old Hunter Black near his bedroom.
He is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and second-degree assault in connection with the deadly break-in. They all include aggravating circumstances of using a deadly weapon.
Groce’s tense week-long trial in April ended with a hung jury, when they were unable to agree on a unanimous decision following one day of deliberations.
Prosecutors have argued that all of the evidence points to Groce being one of the three men who hatched a plan to bust into the home on Oct. 26, 2018.
That includes his DNA on the shotgun shell, a reported confession to a girlfriend that they said helped link Groce to the then-unsolved shooting, as well as testimony from one of his co-conspirators, Wardell E. Braxton.
But defense attorney James Curtis previously pointed out problems in the case, including one of the witnesses identifying a suspect who wasn’t investigated and the issue of Braxton’s account of what happened changing multiple times before agreeing to testify.
Curtis has argued it was possible that Black, who was selling marijuana, was set up by his roommates.
Black’s shooting
Black and his then pregnant girlfriend, Cynarra Scott-Sortor, were asleep in their Yelm Street home when the light turned on and two masked men were standing over them, according to court documents.
The men were making demands of Hunter, who sold marijuana.
Scott-Sortor told the jury during the last trial that Hunter got up and moved toward a man holding a shotgun and then quickly fell to the ground.
Around the same time, one of their roommates, Johnathan Williams, came out of his room and confronted the men. He struggled with the gun and it fell to the floor.
Braxton already had left the house and the other two assailants ran out to a dark car and fled.
Police linked the shotgun to a Pasco woman, who was the grandmother of Kavonte “K.C.” Conley. She told police he kept the gun under his bed.
Along with tying Conley to the crime, investigators also linked Braxton to the shooting.
Washington State Patrol Crime Lab scientists described it as a surprisingly large amount of DNA. According to the laboratory, the DNA profile is 7.4 decillion times more likely to have come from Groce than a random individual. A decillion is a one followed by 33 zeroes.
They said they found Williams’ DNA on the gun.
Prosecutors noted that when Groce was questioned about the gun, he said he didn’t know that Conley had a shotgun.
Investigators received further confirmation from Groce’s then-girlfriend after he admitted in 2021 that he had killed Black. The woman testified that initially she didn’t believe him, but soon learned there was a murder.
Braxton pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for his testimony at Groce’s trial. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
He told investigators that Conley and Groce went into the house, but initially didn’t admit he also went inside.
Curtis previously argued to jurors that prosecutors left several details unexplained.
He noted that Scott-Sortor initially identified a possible suspect during interviews with police, and prosecutors never asked her about it. They never showed that there was any investigation of the man with a connection to Conley’s grandmother’s home.
He also pointed out that Braxton changed his story multiple times before testifying, and seemed to be inconsistent about previously buying drugs from Black.
Curtis argued that if Braxton was willing to lie once, he would be willing to continue lying.
Among the other evidence that Curtis noted was bloody footprints that a roommate left after stepping over Black’s body to grab a tote full of marijuana still in Black’s room before calling police.
He also said that Groce’s DNA could have been transferred to the shotgun shell at any time.
