DALLAS — Murder charges were dropped at the prosecution’s request Thursday in the dragging death of a black man in east Texas, and the two white men who had been accused of killing him were released from jail.
Shannon Finley and Charles Crostley were released Thursday in Paris after a judge granted the special prosecutor’s motion to dismiss the case. The men had been charged with fatally striking 24-year-old Brandon McClelland with a pickup truck in September after a late-night beer run the three friends had made to Oklahoma.
The case was hampered by a lack of eyewitnesses and physical evidence. Last month, a gravel-truck driver gave a sworn statement acknowledging he might have accidentally run over McClelland.
Special prosecutor Toby Shook said the investigation will continue. The gravel-truck driver is unlikely to face charges.
Civil-rights activists who had protested how county authorities handled the case reacted with incredulity.
Finley and Crostley had been unable to post their bails and had remained in jail since being arrested last year.
Authorities have said Finley, Crostley and McClelland were friends who drove to Oklahoma for beer in September. They argued on the way back about whether Finley was too drunk to drive, and McClelland got out of the vehicle to walk home.
Authorities had alleged that Finley then ran down McClelland, whose body was caught under the truck and dragged about 70 feet. His mangled body was found along a country road.
David Turner, Crostley’s attorney, said McClelland’s death “was not motivated by race or any criminal intent. It was just a tragic accident.”
