After 186 days behind bars on charges that never made it to trial, David Gary Graves walked out of the Mecklenburg County jail on March 4, 2026, a free man for now. Prosecutors had formally dismissed the murder and armed-robbery case tied to a fatal August shooting in north Charlotte, filing a motion that cleared the slate without ever putting the evidence before a jury.
Prosecutors say evidence did not put him at scene
In a March 4 motion to dismiss, Assistant District Attorney Desmond McCallum wrote that forensic evidence did not place Graves at the scene of the killing, according to The Charlotte Observer. The Mecklenburg district attorney’s office left itself an escape hatch, stating that the charges could be refiled if new evidence emerges, effectively hitting pause on the prosecution rather than closing the door entirely.
Deadly night in north Charlotte and a quick arrest
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say the case began just after midnight on Aug. 28, 2025, when officers were called to the 200 block of Hoskins Mill Lane. There, they found 48-year-old Sean Watson suffering from gunshot wounds; he died two days later, authorities said. Detectives moved quickly. As reported by WBTV, investigators arrested Graves the next day and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted robbery, and he was held without bond while homicide detectives continued their inquiry.
Video, phone records and a competing narrative
Court records and a doorbell camera video reviewed by The Charlotte Observer show two armed men chasing Watson across a porch at 234 Hoskins Mill Lane. Police affidavits say Graves and Watson exchanged more than 300 calls in the months before the shooting, a phone history that helped focus the investigation on Graves.
Graves, however, points to his own digital trail. He says he has phone and location records that would put him at an Airbnb in south Charlotte near Pineville at the time of the shooting. His attorney, Michael Littlejohn, says Graves now plans to file a wrongful-imprisonment lawsuit following his release.
Case dismissed, but not entirely gone
With the dismissal on the books, the district attorney’s office retains the option to refile if new leads or evidence surface, leaving the file technically open even as Graves walks free. For a look at how the case began, Hoodline previously covered the early stages of the investigation in its piece on the initial arrest on Hoskins Mill Lane.
