MOUNT HOLLY – A Willingboro man held in pretrial detention for 4½. years has been cleared of a murder charge.

Sam T. Gore, 30, was arrested in September 2019, one week after the fatal shooting of DeAsia Ayres, a Willingboro woman, in an apparent robbery.

A Superior Court jury found Gore not guilty of murder, felony murder and related gun charges on Friday, March 22, according to his defense attorney, Robin Lord of Trenton.“We are grateful for the jury system that has returned Sam back to his family,” Lord said in a statement.

Defense attorney slams investigation

The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment.

Lord noted the jury’s verdicts followed “several weeks of testimony” during a trial that began Feb. 29.

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“We maintained that the ineptitude of the investigation resulted in the true person or persons responsible (for Ayres’ death) to literally get away with murder,” said Lord.

Ayres, 26, was found slain in a parked car on Baldwin Lane around 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 18, 2019.

She had been shot in the back of her neck and head during that day’s early morning hours, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.

“The investigation, or lack thereof, included the collection of evidence at the scene and not submitting any of it for analysis with the State Police lab,” Lord said.

Lord also said the investigation lacked “any dignity or respect” for the victim, contending an officer “repeatedly spit tobacco juice all over the crime scene , including inches from (Ayres’) body as his superiors watched without saying a word.”

The attorney said Gore’s long wait for trial resulted from a backlog of cases due to the pandemic.

A separate suspect in the case, Devon Woods, 29, of Trenton, was tried separately in 2022.

Woods, described as the triggerman, was found guilty of murder, robbery and other charges. He is serving a life sentence.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Sam T. Gore of Willingboro was found not guilty of Deasia Ayres murder