Police charged 3 men in an August shooting on Hilton Head. Was there enough evidence?
Prosecutors sent the case against three men charged in an August shooting on Hilton Head Island back to investigators, asking police to continue their probe.
The 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office remanded the warrants brought against three Hilton Head men — Derrick Frazier, 28, Tyrise Blake, 20, and Bernard Garvin Jr., 28 — because there wasn’t enough evidence to convict them, according to documents.
As a result, both Frazier and Garvin were released from the Beaufort County Detention Center on bond on Tuesday. Blake had been out since late October.
The charges stemmed from a shooting near Muddy Creek and Spanish Wells roads that left four people injured.
A deputy’s report said two people were shot in the leg, one in the neck, and one in the abdomen. All four went to the hospital and recovered.
In September, a Sheriff’s Office investigator brought warrants to a judge alleging that Frazier, Blake and Garvin shot at a group of people “following a verbal and physical altercation with one of the victims” at a gathering on Spanish Wells Road.
On Sept. 17, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office charged each with four counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a weapon in commission of a violent crime.
But the Solicitor’s Office kicked the case back to the Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday, due to “insufficient evidence to present the case for indictment to the Grand Jury,” according to court rules.
The Sheriff’s Office has 90 days to produce additional evidence. Failure to do so could result in the charges being dismissed.
Jeff Kidd, spokesperson for the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, declined to comment on the problems his office found with the evidence.
Maj. Bob Bromage with the Sheriff’s Office said the warrants were originally approved on probable cause, and they will take this chance to investigate further.
Probable cause, a reasonable belief by law enforcement that a crime has been committed, is the standard for a judge to sign a warrant to arrest someone.
Prosecutors require a higher bar. If a case is brought to court, a jury has to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of someone’s guilt.
The Solicitor’s Office didn’t believe the evidence met that standard, according to Kidd.
“It’s rare,” said Jim Brown, a criminal defense lawyer based in Beaufort. “In my experience, it’s rare to have a case remanded instead of (outright) dismissed.”
“There may have been enough calls for an arrest but not enough evidence for a conviction — but some feeling from the prosecutor’s office to see if that gap [can] be filled,” he said.
This story was originally published November 19, 2020 at 4:40 AM.
