The suspect in Janesville’s first homicide of 2020 pleads not guilty following his preliminary hearing in Rock County Court Monday.

24-year-old Corvasie Weaver is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting death of 40-year-old James Chestnut III on January 5.

Police spoke to at least one witness who said Chestnut got into a fight with Weaver and two other men on the porch at 613 West Racine Street early that morning during a birthday party at the house.

Detective Christopher Buescher testified Monday that Chestnut’s girlfriend was with him when he tried to leave the residence, and she identified Weaver as the shooter.

Weavers attorney’s pointed out the girlfriend waivered somewhat in identifying Weaver, and detective Buescher said she may have been conflicted because she was close with both men.

Officers reviewed surveillance footage from the home, which showed Weaver holding a handgun while on the porch, but the firing of the weapon was not caught on camera.

Police recovered 10 shell casings in the lawn in front of the house, and the autopsy confirmed Chestnut’s cause of death was from a homicidal gunshot wound.