PANAMA CITY — A man accused of shooting a 17-year-old in the head is scheduled to be on trial today for charges of second-degree murder, according to court documents.
Javares Cameron, 19, was arrested last October in connection with the death of 17-year-old Curtis Hunt. Hunt was shot in the head outside a residence on Kraft Avenue in what investigators called a “targeted attack.” Cameron faces second-degree murder charges and resisting arrest without violence charges as his trial begins today.
Cameron was arrested along with two, out of three juveniles, who rode along with him the day Hunt was gunned down on the roadside.
A juvenile witness traveling in the car told authorities that Cameron picked him up at Royal Arms Garden Apartments and drove to the “paper mill projects” with only sparse information about his intentions.
“He just told us he was going to sell some hats,” said Capri Brooks.
Brooks and Isiah Grady, 16, were arrested along with Cameron after a police foot pursuit following the shooting. Brooks saw the gun, a semiautomatic pistol, as Cameron left him and the other passengers behind in the car, he said. A gunshot rang out a short time later before Cameron returned to the vehicle, slightly winded, the juvenile told authorities.
Cameron didn’t say anything when he returned to the car, Brooks said. But he looked scared as he drove the group away from the scene.
Investigators never released a motive in the slaying.
Police pulled over Cameron’s car back at Royal Arms, on the other side of Panama City. Officers ordered the group out of the car and onto the ground at gunpoint before a foot chase ensued. Cameron fled first, and the other juvenile passengers in his car followed suit, Brooks told investigators. However, Brooks returned to the car to clean up some left behind evidence.
“A gun, well, a gun I had touched, so I was just, you know, going to remove my fingerprints from it,” he said.
Neither Brooks nor Grady admitted to knowing Cameron before that day and did not clearly tell investigators why they got in the car with him in the first place. Officers never announced the arrest of the fourth suspect. Both juveniles have given investigators conflicting statements about the presence of a fourth suspect, who can be seen fleeing police on dash cam video from their arrests.
Grady also claimed he did not even hear a gunshot that day, according to court documents.
Cameron is expected to appear in court today to begin jury selection in the trial.