Two brothers are facing charges in the shooting death of Martez Corey, whose father says the family still lacks answers.
HAMPTON, Va. — The murder trial of two Hampton brothers charged in the shooting death of Martez Corey began this week, bringing Corey’s family into court still grieving a loss they say has never been explained.
For William Corey, the trial is the first public test of a case that has weighed on his family since his 26-year-old son was killed in June 2024. Prosecutors allege that brothers Re’Al Butler and J.C. Butler were responsible for the shooting. The charges are serious and wide-ranging, but one issue still hangs over the case as it opens: why Corey was killed. His father has said the family has no clear answer and does not know of any relationship between Corey and the men charged in his death.
The killing happened on June 1, 2024, in the 500 block of Old Buckroe Road. Police said officers reached the scene at about 7:30 p.m. and found Corey with life-threatening gunshot wounds. Rescue crews tried to save him, but he died there. The shooting took place near Robert R. Moton Elementary School, in a part of Hampton where the damage left by gunfire remained part of the landscape long after the case first made headlines. According to the family’s account, Corey was sitting on the front porch of a home connected to family friends when shots were fired. William Corey has described the attack as sudden and overwhelming, saying his son was hit multiple times and never got the chance to escape. He said the violence of the shooting changed everything that followed, including the family’s funeral plans.
Months passed before police announced arrests. In March 2025, Hampton police said they had arrested Re’Al Butler, then 24, and J.C. Butler, then 25, with help from the U.S. Marshals Service. Both men were charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, shooting into an occupied dwelling and shooting a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. Re’Al Butler also was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Court records later showed the brothers were indicted in November 2025. Even with those developments, investigators released little public detail about motive, witness accounts or the evidence that led to the arrests. That left the victim’s relatives trying to process both the progress in the case and the silence around the reason for the killing.
William Corey has spoken in deeply personal terms about what the family lost. He said the condition of his son’s body meant the family could not hold an open-casket funeral. He also described the pain of scattering his son’s ashes at his mother’s grave, turning private grief into a ritual of remembrance. Those details help explain why the trial carries emotional force beyond its legal stakes. It is not only a murder case moving through the court system. It is also a reckoning for a father who has revisited the scene, replayed the shooting in his mind and waited through a long investigation. Hampton has seen homicide cases before, but this one has stood out because of the time between the shooting and the arrests and because the family has continued to speak publicly while saying so little has been explained to them.
Now that the case is in court, the central questions are likely to sharpen. Jurors may hear how investigators identified the brothers, what physical or witness evidence supports the charges and whether prosecutors can persuade them that the shooting was coordinated. Defense lawyers are expected to challenge the state’s case, though the details of that strategy may unfold only through testimony and cross-examination. The trial also could reveal whether there was any prior contact between Corey and the defendants or whether prosecutors believe the attack was driven by another dispute. Until those facts come out in court, the family is left in a position that is both public and uncertain: watching the legal process move ahead while the motive remains, at least publicly, unresolved.
The story has always contained two tracks, one legal and one personal. On one side are the counts listed in indictments and the sequence of arrest, detention and trial. On the other are the ordinary details of a life cut short and the lasting emptiness that follows. William Corey has said he still stops to think about his son whenever he passes the area where he was killed. That kind of memory does not show up in a charging document, but it shapes the meaning of the case for the people closest to it. As witnesses take the stand, the court will weigh proof and procedure. Corey’s family, meanwhile, is still waiting for the one thing they say they have lacked from the start: a reason.
The trial has opened, but the broader search for answers is still unfinished. What happens next will depend on the evidence presented in court and whether the proceedings finally explain the events of June 1, 2024, in a way the family has not yet heard.
Author note: Last updated March 27, 2026.