Charges dropped in killing of St. Helena uncle, nephew after a mistrial in 2020. Why?
Prosecutors with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office dropped charges against a Beaufort man they accused of killing a St. Helena Island uncle and his nephew in 2017.
The trial of Gerard Daise, 21, of Beaufort resulted in a hung jury and mistrial in November 2020.
On Monday, the Solicitor’s Office decided not to re-try Daise, who previously faced two counts of murder and one count of possession of a weapon in commission of a violent crime.
Prosecutors and police originally accused him and two other teenagers of shooting and killing Chaz and Robert Blanding in 2017.
Five people total were charged in their murders. The others were:
- Symone Jones, 23, of Beaufort
- Nashon Pringle, 21, of St. Helena
- Channon Preston, 21, of St. Helena
- Raheem Bennett, 19, of St. Helena
Jones, Pringle and Bennett were slated to serve as witnesses in Daise’s trial in November last year.
Before the trial, Pringle and Bennett agreed to pleas with the Solicitor’s Office that reduced their charges from murder.
Leslie Sarji, a Charleston-based defense attorney who represented Daise, said her client didn’t shoot anybody.
She said the Solicitor’s Office staked its case on the testimonies of those three, who had motive to lie and say Daise did it.
“You can’t believe these people,” she said. “They were incredibly motivated to come up with what they could to get the best deals they could.”
The jury was unable to reach a verdict. Faced with having “to produce further evidence against” Daise so the case could be retried, the Solicitor’s Office said it would be unable to do so.
The Solicitor’s Office twice declined to comment on what caused the mistrial or divulge details of the crimes the defendants were accused of committing. Jeff Kidd, the agency’s spokesperson, said the office can’t comment publicly because Pringle and Bennett are awaiting sentencing.
Lawyers for Jones, Pringle and Preston did not respond to phone messages.
Bennett’s public defender declined to comment.
What’s known
Robert Blanding, 24, was found dead with gunshot wounds in a Lady’s Island drainage ditch on Nov. 22, 2017.
Authorities found the body of his nephew, Chaz, on St. Helena a week and a half later.
By Dec. 12, 2017, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office had charged four people, all younger than 21, with murder: Symone Jones, Nashon Pringle, Channon Preston, and Raheem Bennett.
Gerard Daise wasn’t charged until over a year later.
An arrest warrant for Jones said she “facilitated” the crime by picking up and driving the victim to the place he was shot on F&B Road near Beaufort High School.
At the November 2020 trial, the prosecution alleged that Pringle, Preston and Daise were the three shooters, according to Sarji. One of the Blandings was shot in the backseat of Jones’ car, and the other was shot outside of the car.
The explanations for this, though, changed.
Sarji said her defense team discovered that Jones changed her statement eight times between 2017 and the 2020 trial as she told law enforcement officers and prosecutors what happened.
Jones, according to Sarji, said the crime began as an armed robbery.
Additionally, Sarji said evidence presented at trial showed that Jones and Pringle spoke with one another at the Beaufort County Detention Center to line up their stories.
They communicated secretly through drains in different parts of the yard of the Detention Center, Sarji said.
After the trial
The evidence called into question the testimony of the three co-defendants, Sarji said.
A recent court document in the case of Channon Preston, a co-defendant, said Daise’s trial featured three witnesses “impugning their credibility” in their court testimony.
More than three years later:
- Gerard Daise’s charges were dropped after the November mistrial.
- Symone Jones was sentenced to 11 years in prison last month for accessory to murder after the fact.
- The Solicitor’s Office dropped charges against Channon Preston in November 2020, saying the testimony of “necessary witnesses” impugned their credibility in the Daise trial and meant prosecutors did not have enough evidence to “prove the cases against [Preston] beyond a reasonable doubt.”
- Pringle and Bennett pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and possession of a weapon in commission of a violent crime. They await sentencing; conviction requires a minimum of two years in prison but no more than 30 years.
NOTE: An earlier version of the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette article erroneously reported Symone Jones’ plea. Jones was indicted on a charge of accessory to murder after the fact and pleaded guilty to that charge.
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 9:19 AM.
