COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WWAY) -- A trial is underway for a man charged with two murders in 2007, including his own cousin.
Santonio Jenrette faces two counts of first degree murder after investigators charged him with the 2007 murders of Darnell Frink, 22, and Rashed Delamez Jones, 14.
Police say Jenrette and two others shot into a crowd of people at Sam's Pit Stop in Lake Waccamaw after a high school football game in Sept. 2007 killing Frink. Jones, a witness to the crime, went missing a month later. Investigators say Jenrette kidnapped and killed Jones, who was his cousin, to keep him from talking.
"Any time you have youth involved with a murder and actually perpetrating it and ultimately and unfortunately being the victims there of it... the second victim was 14 years old and was a student at the time. It was very tragic for the school, everyone who knew him and the entire community to lose someone so young," Assistant District Attorney Fred Gore said.
Gore says the trial could continue for weeks.