Jury finds St. Helena man not guilty in Lady’s Island gas station shootout that left 1 dead
A jury found a St. Helena Island man not guilty of murder in the 2019 Lady’s Island gas station shootout that left one person dead.
After a four-day trial and more than six hours deliberating, the Beaufort County jury returned a not guilty verdict on Thursday evening on one count of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and one count of possession of a weapon in commission of a violent crime brought against 27-year-old Jeffrey Daquann Redd.
Redd hung his head in relief after the clerk read the verdict at around 6:50 p.m. at the Beaufort County courthouse. Members of the family of Clarence Mitchell III, 20, of St. Helena, who was killed in the shooting, shook their heads. A member of Redd’s family began crying.
“This has been a long process for Jeffrey. He’s waited a long time to clear his name,” said Redd’s attorney, Ashley Cornwell of Mount Pleasant, in an interview after the verdict. “Justice was served because there was not enough evidence to convict him.”
The case was large and messy. The 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office brought out 27 witnesses, several of whom were involved in the incident and resistant to prosecutors’ questions. There were 70 bullets recovered from the crime scene, which was one of the largest ever investigated by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, according to prosecutors.
Assistant Solicitor Mary Jones accused Redd of targeting a black Camry he saw in a Circle K parking lot on the night of June 3, 2019, and spraying bullets from an assault rifle. The gas station lot was made up of people who just left a Beaufort High School graduation ceremony.
Prosecutors attempted to link Redd to the crime with forensic evidence, like gunshot residue and bullets from the scene found in his car, behavior displayed online in the days after the shooting, and early police interviews identifying Redd as the shooter.
During deliberations, jurors sent back several notes to the judge asking to re-watch videos of police interviews with victims in the case.
Cornwell, Redd’s lawyer, said in her closing arguments Thursday that no witness definitively placed Redd at the scene of the shooting.
Thursday’s arguments were contentious — Cornwell even took the step of accusing prosecutors of lying to the court to convict Redd.
“They don’t have any evidence, so what do they do? They lie. They lie to get warrants … they lie to this court,” Cornwell told jurors directly.
According to Jones, the prosecution was forced to deal with uncooperative witnesses who changed their story.
Some victims of the shooting, who were subpoenaed to testify, took the stand this week and did not answer questions from prosecutors.
Tyrese Chisolm was in the Camry and was the real target of Redd, Jones alleged. Chisolm testified while in a jail jumpsuit, detained on federal gun charges, and told prosecutors, “I’m good, bruh,” in response to their questions, according to Jones.
Another victim in the Camry, Kashaun “K.J.” Holmes, identified Redd as the alleged shooter to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office investigator in an interview following the shooting, according to evidence played during trial. Holmes was “riddled with bullet holes,” Jones said, and in the hospital when he made the admission to police.
Then in testimony this week, Holmes retracted what he said. Holmes said he was under heavy pain medication when he told that to police, that he didn’t remember what he said, and that he didn’t see Redd with a gun that night.
Cornwell accused prosecutors of “feeding him information with what they want to say.” Jones said, like the other victims, Holmes was scared of repercussions and of being labeled a “snitch.”
“A ‘snitch’ is not going to point the finger at a man he’s known his entire life and say that man tried to kill me,” Jones said Thursday.
Redd’s not guilty verdict comes as charges against two other men in the shooting are pending.
This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 7:18 PM.
