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Jury To Decide Fate Of Man Charged In 'Family Dollar' Double Murder

DEARBORN (WWJ) -- The jury is scheduled to return to deliberations Monday in the case of a former worker accused of killing two employees at the Family Dollar store in Dearborn.

Lavere Bryant, 34, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder -- among other charges -- in the July shooting deaths of Family Dollar employees Joseph Orlando and Brenna Machus.

Prosecutors say Bryant was fired from the store, but went back in July and killed Orlando, 20, in the store bathroom. They say he then robbed the store and kidnapped and killed the 20-year-old Machus. Her body found two days later in a field about a mile away.

Michigan State Police forensic scientist Andrea Young testified in October and said that DNA found on a shopping cart, towels, and in Bryant's car links him to the victims.

[WWJ and CBSDetroit.com previously reported incorrectly that Joseph Orlando had a history of assault and sexual assault convictions. This was a mistake, as Lavere Bryant was intended to be referred to in the report.]

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