Found innocent Wednesday, Alonzo Trevillion will not be the fourth member of his family to go to prison for a 2007 fatal shooting.

Jurors in Warren County Circuit Court deliberated for more than three hours before acquitting Trevillion, 37, of all charges at about 4:15 p.m.

“The jury did a good job,” said Trevillion’s attorney, Louis Field, who had earlier argued that a reasonable doubt existed. “I think they required the state to prove what they are supposed to prove under the law, and we wound up with the right result.”

Except for a gasp from one observer, the courtroom remained quiet when the verdict was read. Trevillion remained seated next to his defense counsel.

Based on the verdict, charges against a fifth man indicted for 25-year-old Justin Maurice Harris’ murder, Rufus Armstrong, will be dismissed, said District Attorney Ricky Smith. The facts of Armstrong’s case are virtually identical to Alonzo Trevillion’s, he said.

During the three-day trial, jurors were told that Trevillion was present at the scene of Harris in the early morning hours of June 17, 2007.

His three brothers, Anthony and Armond Trevillion, who fired weapons, and Matthew Nash, who lured the victim out of his house and into the line of fire, are all serving life sentences plus more than 50 years each in prison.

Alonzo Trevillion, who also faced two counts of aggravated assault and one count of shooting into an occupied dwelling, did not testify in his own defense.

His statement to police after Harris’ death was introduced, however. It showed that he tried to talk his brothers out of going to Harris’ home and shooting him, but that he was also the driver of a car that took them to the scene of the shooting, 1224 Grammar St., and, later, to a convenience store in Louisiana where they got chips and drinks.

The brothers were angry with Harris after he fought with Anthony Trevillion at a downtown nightclub earlier that night, according to testimony in the cases.

Assistant District Attorney Dewey Arthur told jurors that Alonzo Trevillion’s role in aiding, abetting and participating made him guilty just as if he had pulled the trigger. “The law says, if you deliberately associate yourself, you are guilty,” Arthur said during his closing argument.

But Field argued that Alonzo Trevillion is an example of why people stand back and don’t try to stop a crime that’s unfolding. “They’re afraid they’ll get caught up in it,” he said. “Alonzo Trevillion did,” he said, trying to be his brothers’ keeper.

“I respect the decision of the jury,” Smith said later, “but I believe they were probably concerned with the severity of the penalty if they found him guilty.” Smith said a murder conviction — and mandatory sentence of life in prison — when Trevillion did not pull the trigger might have seemed too much for the panel.

He could have been charged with accessory after the fact, Smith said, “but we believed and still believe he acted in concert with his brothers in carrying out the shooting.”

The case is the first Smith has lost in Warren County since being elected two years ago as DA for the 9th Circuit Court, which also includes Sharkey and Issaquena counties. A Sharkey County jury returned a not guilty verdict earlier this year for three men accused of a Cary murder.

Alonzo Trevillion, who has been in the Warren County Jail since his arrest after Harris’ death, was not immediately released. Pending charges of possession of marijuana are still in effect against him from a 2007 grand jury indictment. Circuit Judge M. James Chaney set bond in that case for $5,000 immediately after releasing the jurors Wednesday, and Trevillion was returned to the jail.

The trial featured a visit by jurors and court officers Tuesday to the site of the shooting on Grammar Street and a short court session aboard a school bus.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com