Michael Christian, a 60-year-old White/Caucasian male from Huntington, West Virginia, was killed on the morning of August 19, 2025, in a daylight shooting outside his residence on Sixth Avenue. Huntington police were dispatched at approximately 9:44 to 9:45 a.m. to the 500 block of Sixth Avenue, with later reporting identifying the residence as 537 Sixth Avenue. Officers found Christian suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The person responsible for the shooting fled on foot, prompting police to establish a perimeter while detectives and forensic investigators began processing the scene and searching the surrounding area. Investigators quickly classified the death as a homicide and said the circumstances appeared to involve a targeted, isolated encounter rather than a random attack.
The investigation soon focused on Carson Scott Jeffers, an acquaintance of Christian. Police said the two had been involved in an ongoing verbal dispute and alleged that Jeffers specifically targeted Christian when that conflict turned violent. According to the criminal complaint, investigators considered the shooting premeditated. Jeffers was not captured during the initial search on the day of the killing; instead, authorities said he went to the Huntington Police Department the following day, August 20, surrendered, and confessed to the premeditated killing. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. A preliminary hearing was initially scheduled for August 27, and police continued to request information from anyone who might have known additional details about what occurred before or during the shooting. Huntington police also identified Christian's death as the city's fourth homicide of 2025 at that point in the year.
The case carried additional significance because Jeffers already had a serious criminal history. Huntington police said he had previously been convicted of second-degree murder in connection with the 2007 shooting death of Michael Shane Sharp on West 17th Street in Huntington. Authorities said Jeffers entered a Kennedy plea in that earlier case and was eventually released from prison. That prior felony conviction also meant he was legally prohibited from possessing a firearm, an issue that later became a separate charge in the prosecution arising from Christian's death. Police described Jeffers as having lived at various locations around Huntington after his release.
The prosecution advanced substantially in 2026. In early June, a Cabell County grand jury indicted Jeffers in connection with Christian's killing. The indictment included first-degree murder, use or presentment of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. Reporting at the time again noted that Huntington police said Jeffers had confessed following the shooting. The indictment moved the case beyond the original magistrate-level murder charge and into formal felony prosecution in Cabell County Circuit Court.
On June 9, 2026, Jeffers appeared virtually for a court hearing and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, including murder and the two firearm-related counts. The court ordered that he remain jailed without bond, and a pretrial hearing was scheduled for July 14. Despite the earlier reported confession, the not-guilty plea meant the allegations remained subject to proof in court and no conviction in Christian's killing had been entered at that stage. The latest publicly located reporting reviewed for the case does not document a subsequent guilty plea, trial verdict, sentencing, or other final disposition after the scheduled pretrial proceeding, leaving the prosecution unresolved in the available reporting.
