A Norfolk jury found a man not guilty in the death of 22-year-old Erica Wright in July, after he testified that he shot her nine times in self-defense while she attempted to rob him.

“I feel indescribable,” said Shaiqui Mckesson, once the jury read their verdict after nearly seven hours of deliberation. He was charged with first-degree murder and use of a firearm in Wright’s death on July 10, 2025, after detectives used surveillance footage to tie him to the shooting.

Mckesson, now 24, testified on the third day of the trial that Wright was a friend of a friend who owed him $50 for marijuana he’d sold her days before the shooting.

He said Wright messaged him over Facebook to meet on Bagnall Road, to sell her marijuana and settle their previous transaction. Before leaving, he grabbed his mother’s gun.

Jurors traveled by bus to visit the scene of the shooting at the request of Mckesson’s attorney, Eric Korslund. This trip, a juror later said, helped Mckesson’s claim of self-defense.

Mckesson testified that once in the passenger seat of his 2009 Black Jaguar, Wright appeared to be prepping Apple Pay on her phone to pay him. Before she finished, he said, Wright exited the car, pulled a Glock from her waistband, sat back inside and pointed it at his face.

“I was scared,” he said on the stand.

He testified that Wright told him to give her everything he had – a small bag of marijuana and a $10 bill from his wallet.

Mckesson lifted the gun from his left thigh and shot Wright nine times, striking her in the head, shoulders and neck, according to the autopsy report of her body. He then pushed Wright’s body out the passenger door of his car before driving away, as seen in surveillance footage played in the courtroom.

Before driving home, he stopped in an apartment complex to check if he’d been shot, and cleaned Wright’s blood from his car’s seats. At home, he returned his mother’s gun to her bedroom closet, took a shower and then began Google searching his name, his car, news reports and the locations of surveillance cameras in Norfolk.

He testified his searches were to help him find the nearest police station to turn himself in, and to avoid getting pulled over on his way there. Mckesson said he fell asleep before Virginia Beach police arrested him six hours after the shooting.

Korslund admitted to jurors in his hour-long closing argument that Mckesson’s behavior was strange.

“He took a gun with him to Calvert Square to sell weed to someone,” he said. “If I was his father, I would’ve taken him behind a barn and taken out my belt.”

But what matters, he said, was that Mckesson was defending himself.

Detectives never found a gun on Wright, but a figure on the footage can be seen approaching the body, picking up something small, and retreating into a residence, Korslund said. He questioned why detectives did not investigate further.

Anthony Balady, senior assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney, argued that what mattered most was what happened in the car.

“Only two people know what happened in that car that day,” he said. “And Erica is no longer here to speak for herself.”

Both Mckesson’s and Wright’s family filled the courtroom on all four days of the trial.

When he was arrested, “everyone was saying that this isn’t Shaiqui. He’s not that kind of a person,” said Mckesson’s aunt Cecilee Mckesson.

The family of Shaiqui Mckesson gathers to welcome him home after he was released from the Norfolk City Jail on Friday afternoon, Feb. 13, 2026. Mckesson was acquitted Friday morning by a jury for killing Erica Wright after he testified that he shot her to save his own life. (Courtesy/Lizetta Mckesson)

Cecilee described her nephew as a geek who had never been in trouble before.

Wright’s mother, Davonya Eberhardt, said her daughter was not the person she was made out to be in the courtroom.

“On the toughest days she would make us smile,” Eberhardt said. “In the dullest moments she would pick us up.”

With seven sisters, two brothers and a new niece on the way, “she was a crutch to our family,” her mother said.

Wright loved to be a girl, said her younger sister Lenzi Ray Wright. She loved to dress up, dance, shake her hips and sing, especially to Mike Jones.

“I feel like justice was not served,” Eberhardt said.

“In the same breath I am sorry that Erica’s family had to lose her,” said Mckesson’s mother, Tiffany Fields. “And I am ecstatic that my son doesn’t have to spend the rest of his life in jail after having to make the split second decision to save his own life.”

Mckesson said that he hasn’t hugged or spoken face to face with anyone but his lawyer for seven months. The entirety of his incarceration was spent in solitary confinement as a result of his charges.

Released from the Norfolk City Jail Friday afternoon, Mckesson said he was most excited to spend time with his family.

Nori Leybengrub, nori.leybengrub@virginiamedia.com

https://www.dailypress.com/2026/02/14/norfolk-trial-not-guilty/