ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A man was convicted in St. Louis County Wednesday for killing his best friend in 2018. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison on Nov. 27.
The jury convicted 23-year-old Korrie Black. Black was 18 when he shot and killed 16-year-old Gerrian Green during a dispute over a gun Black had borrowed from Green.
Black fatally shot Green in the 5800 block of Bermuda Drive in Normandy in November 2018. When police got there, they found Green with multiple gunshot wounds. He died there.
Green's sister witnessed the shooting and shared what she saw in the courtroom.
"[She] testified that Green had done nothing physical to provoke the shooting and was not close enough to Black to pose a threat at the time of the shooting," the release said. "She dramatically re-enacted the distance between killer and victim during cross-examination, showing Green posed no threat to Black."
Black testified in his defense. He offered a different reenactment that placed the victim close enough to the firearm to grab it, arguing that he fired in self-defense.
The jury rejected that argument, according to a written news release from the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
“The victim’s sister, who was a child of 15 when she saw her big brother shot and killed, gave incredibly composed and credible testimony that the jury believed over the defendant, who killed his own best friend for no reason. I hope this guilty verdict and sentence brings some closure to the victim’s family,” St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said.
The prosecution attorney's office had others testify during the prosecution, including the St. Louis County medical examiner, a St. Louis County Police Crime Lab forensic firearms examiner, two officers with the Normandy Police Department, and the victim's mother.
