Texas man found not guilty in Portland pot heist that left 4 dead, including 2 robbers

A man accused of traveling from Texas to Portland for a

pot robbery that ended in a spray of bullets

— leaving four dead — has been found not guilty of all charges.

After 3½ days of deliberation, the Multnomah County Circuit Court jury voted 11-1 to acquit Jeremy Lenoire of two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Mitchell Nacoste, 31, and 27-year-old Kendall Gragg.

Defense attorney Alexander Hamlian said Lenoire had no criminal record and was studying to become a real estate agent

when he was arrested

in Denton County, Texas in March 2022.

“He wants to get back home and continue pursuing a professional career, and just put this behind him,” Hamalian said. “This was the right outcome.”

The June 6, 2021, shooting happened just before 11 p.m., when a trio of masked gunmen burst into Nacoste’s home at 5042 S.E. Boise St. in the Creston-Kenilworth neighborhood.

Nacoste charged one of the assailants, 24-year-old

Donovan Lenford,

and wrested control of his rifle. He fatally shot Lenford, then fired another round that struck 23-year-old robber Eyion Willis in the back of the head as he rushed out the front door.

But during the chaos, Gragg was fatally shot while lying on the couch. Nacoste was mortally wounded but was able to tell his girlfriend Sara Jones to lock the door and call 911 before he died.

Mitchell Nacoste, left, poses for a photo with his daughter. His brother Kendall Gragg is shown at right.

Family photos

In the state’s theory of the case, Lenoire was the third man in the heist-gone-wrong. Nacoste had about 100 pounds of weed stored in his home, which could be sold at a

black-market premium back in Texas.

But there was no surveillance footage, fingerprints, DNA evidence or eyewitnesses who could definitively place Lenoire at the scene.

Hamalian identified an alternate suspect, a local man he said had a grudge against Nacoste over unpaid debts, and also knew one of the deceased robbers.

Jones had described the third man to detectives at the scene, as had a neighbor, Cole Franke. Hamalian said the descriptions didn’t match his client. The defense attorney suggested in his opening statement that Lenoire was in town to attend social justice protests.

The state’s narrative began back in Texas, where Lenoire, Lenford and Willis dropped their cellphones off at a girlfriend’s house and then arranged for another woman to rent a van and drive them to Oregon.

The driver testified that all three men brought guns with them and didn’t discuss the reason for their trip. (Hamalian said traveling while armed was simply part of Texan culture, and that Lenoire had legally purchased his .22-caliber handgun.)

The driver, Alana Fonville Butts, caught a flight back home to Texas once they had arrived in Portland.

Other witnesses testified that Lenoire showed up in Texas a day or two after the killings. One woman said she listened through a closed door as Lenoire told a friend he was the look-out in the scheme.

“I saw him hit the floor,” Lenoire said of Willis, according to the testimony.

Donovan Lenford, left, and Eyion Willis are shown here.

DMV

Prosecutor Shawn Overstreet said there was no evidence that Lenoire actually went to a

protest

. Instead, the timeline suggested he left town immediately after the shooting and drove back home, he argued.

“Mr. Lenoire came to Portland to participate in this robbery, and he did just that,” Overstreet said in his closing. “He just got lucky, and got out alive.”

Overstreet noted that Lenoire’s gun was found at the

scene

, but Hamalian had an answer for that, too. The gun was found beneath Willis’ body, suggesting he was carrying it, the defense attorney said, adding that the third robber’s gun wasn’t left behind.

“This case is the epitome of gaslighting the evidence,” Hamalian said, adding that the alternate suspect was the one who should be in custody. “To prosecute Mr. Lenoire for conduct that was clearly at the hands of this guy is an abomination.”

Members of Nacoste and Gragg’s family attended the trial, and wept in disagreement when the verdict was announced.

—Zane Sparling covers breaking news and courts for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-319-7083,


zsparling@oregonian.com


or


@pdxzane


.

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