Judge finds cause for charges against St. Helena man accused of bringing gun to Beaufort High
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the name of Judge Jean McCormick.
A Beaufort County magistrate judge ruled Friday that there was probable cause for charges against De-Quarious Major, 22, who caused a lockdown at Beaufort High School in October when he was accused of bringing a gun to the campus.
Judge Jean McCormick said at a Friday afternoon preliminary hearing that prosecutors could move forward with the charges against Major of disturbing schools and possession of a firearm on school property.
Major’s lawyer, Matthew Paulk, argued that Major had never actually been seen possessing the gun and that the charges were an attempt to get Major back in custody while he was out of jail on bond. He attempted to get the judge to dismiss the charges. She refused.
“I certainly see your arguments for trial,” Chaplin told Paulk. “However, for the purposes of this hearing, with the testimony I think there is probable cause.”
Major has pending charges of murder and three counts of attempted murder, stemming from a 2019 gas station shooting that killed 20-year-old Clarence Mitchell III of St. Helena Island and left another man injured.
Major is being held at the Beaufort County Detention Center.
What happened at Beaufort High?
Eric Hayes, the school resource officer at Beaufort High School, testified Friday that Major and his mother had come to the school’s campus on Oct. 5 around 10:30 a.m. to pick up his younger sister, who had gotten in trouble and was told to leave the campus for the day.
Major signed his sister out of the office and began arguing with her on the way to the car, which escalated to a physical fight. The school was placed on lockdown during the fight.
“Mr. Major was telling his sister how she needed to stop cutting up in school, needed to stay in school because she didn’t need to end up like he was, out of school,” Paulk said of the argument. “She wasn’t having it that day.”
According to Hayes, staff were trying to calm down Major’s mother and sister when he arrived, but Major was “using profanity and making threatening gestures and remarks toward anyone focusing on him.”
Hayes repeatedly told Major to stand down, then pulled out his taser and told him to get on the ground. Major complied and was arrested.
A former Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputy was there during the argument, and told police that she saw Major’s sister lunge for the passenger seat of their mother’s car during the fight, where she saw a handgun tucked in the space between the seat and the doorframe.
The bystander retrieved the gun, which was later turned over to police, before Hayes arrived, he said.
Hayes said that the school’s security cameras showed Major getting out of the passenger seat and the gun hidden there, which Paulk disputed.
“The weapon was not found on the defendant’s person,” he said. “There’s been no testimony that the defendant ever had dominion or control over it... Miraculously, a former BCSO deputy just happens to pull a gun exactly when the solicitor’s office wants to throw Mr. Major back in jail.”
Prosecutor Mary Jones disagreed, saying that the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office inherited the criminal charges from Beaufort Police Department, where Hayes works to, and adding that the witness testimony “absolutely meets requirements for probable cause.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 5:36 PM.