You were surprised he was CHARGED or that he might have committed such a crime? If you know him, you know some of the crimes he has committed in the past.

As you point out, he may be innocent of this crime.
The sheriff’s department may have made the whole thing up, but that’s more rare than some seem to think.
False witnesses get confused on the witness stand and give each other up if they make up very much.
Things like,
“where did you find it?”,
“what was it beside or on?”
“who first saw it?”
“has it ever been outside your custody while you were handling it?”

For example, if they charge him with possession of a weapon, they probably saw him with a weapon or had some proof he had possessed a weapon.
Further, if they say that weapon is connected to the murder, they tend to have at least some support for the allegation.

If a person was killed by a knife, you don’t charge them with murder because they had a shotgun. Again, this is just for an example because the Sheriff’s department has said they won’t give any details until Monday for some reason which makes perfect sense to them.

David for avoiding false charges