One man was acquitted of a child’s murder in Miami. State dropped case against second man

Less than a month ago, a Miami jury acquitted a man accused of killing a 10-year-old Overtown boy while shooting at a gang rival. Now, prosecutors have dropped the case against the second man charged in the murder.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office on Friday dropped the second-degree murder charge against Ernest Rowell, 24, who’d been in jail for seven years while awaiting trial.

Rowell’s attorney said “the evidence against Mr. Rowell was weak at best.”

“The state had a difficult decision to make due to the nature of the case and the loss of life of a 10-year-old boy. Nevertheless they made the correct decision in dismissing the case,” said lawyer Richard Gregg.

Rowell and Kahleb Newkirk had been charged with the March 2015 murder of Marlon Eason, who was felled by an errant bullet to the head as he played outside his Overtown apartment. Rowell was 17 at the time of the killing, Newkirk just 14.

Investigators believe Newkirk and Rowell were part of a group known as the “Gary Gang.” On March 24, 2015, one of their associates, Richard Hallman, 16, was fatally shot during a firefight with rivals in Allapattah. Less than two hours later, prosecutors said, Newkirk and Rowell opened fire on the 1900 block of Northwest Fourth Court, because they thought they saw the gang rivals in a car driving by.

One of the bullets hit Marlon in the head.

At last month’s trial, Newkirk claimed self-defense in opening fire, and also that the bullet he fired could not have been the one that killed the boy. Jurors acquitted him of murder, but convicted him of carrying a concealed weapon and trespassing. He was released because he’d already served more time in jail than what he could have faced as a maximum punishment for the convictions.

This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 1:34 PM.