ZOE SHORES Facebook photo
A felony charge against the mother of a Nottoway County boy, who was wounded when an handgun discharged inside a residence, has been struck down in Nottoway Circuit Court.
Judge Joseph Teefey dismissed the Child Neglect charge Thursday, Feb. 19th after hearing all evidence and before the case against Zoe Brianna Shores went to an assembled jury for deliberation.
The incident occurred Saturday morning, Dec. 7, 2024 at a residence in the 300 block of Wilson Road, Blackstone, where Ms. Shores and Lee Anthony Winslow had moved. The child apparently grabbed Winslow’s loaded, 9 mm pistol, which had been left on a counter.
Christopher Shores, Jr., who was four-years-old at the time of the incident, was wounded in the lower left abdomen by a blast from Winslow’s gun. The bullet exited his rear left hip area and didn’t hit any vital organs. He recovered from a fractured hip and today is enrolled in Kindergarten.
Ms. Shores, 25, took the stand Thursday in her own defense and testified that she knew Winslow owned guns and that she had walked by the counter that morning — but she didn’t know that Winslow’s gun was there.
Winslow had left the residence, and Ms. Shores was in another room when the gun discharged.
Winslow, 29, testified Thursday that he didn’t realize he had left the gun on the counter.
Judge Teefey ruled Thursday that the prosecution needed more than circumstantial evidence.
The boy’s father, Chris Shores, told the Courier Record after the incident that in addition to his four-year-old son being inside the residence, also present were his threeyear old son, Luke, and another toddler. Chris Shores, who at the time of the incident was living at another location, wasn’t present at the time of the shooting.
Winslow last May pleaded No Contest to a misdemeanor charge of Leaving Gun Loaded/Endangering a Child and received 12 months in jail with six months suspended. Winslow appealed that sentencing to Circuit Court. Judge Teefey in September reduced Winslow’s active sentence to three months. Judge Teefey also ordered that there are to be no firearms in the household for one year.
The Courier-Record reached-out to Ms. Shores for a statement after her case dismissal. She said she would first have to confer with her attorney, Jordan Dalton.
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