Jury reaches verdict in trial for St. Helena man accused in 2019 kidnapping, beating
One of two men accused in a 2019 kidnapping of a couple and beating of the husband was sentenced to 20 years in prison after a jury found him guilty on all charges Friday.
Justin Brodie Granet, 45, St. Helena Island, was charged with two counts of kidnapping, first-degree assault and battery and possession of a weapon in the commission of a violent crime in connection with the March 11, 2019, incident in which a friend was lured to his home and beaten after being accused of sleeping with Granet’s wife.
Don “Chris” Bliss, 45, of Beaufort, Granet’s co-defendant in the case, faces the same charges and will be tried separately.
A jury deliberated about two hours before returning the guilty verdict.
About 10 friends and family members were present at court throughout the week of Granet’s trial, including his wife, two of his three children and his foster child. In a statement to Judge Robert Bonds ahead of sentencing, Granet’s wife said her children “need their father.”
“I just want to say that Justin is our rock, he is what keeps our family together,” she said.
Granet was sentenced Friday to five years for the possession of a weapon charge, 10 years for the assault charge and 20 years for each kidnapping charge. For the kidnapping charges, Granet will serve 14 years and two years suspended probation. The sentences are to be served concurrently.
Granet’s defense attorney, Scott Lee, declined to comment after the trial.
Self-defense?
Toward the end of Granet’s trial, Hannah Kidd, an attorney with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, urged jurors to focus on the crime rather than the affair. She said the victim and his wife were friends with Granet and his wife, and they were lured to the home.
“What matters is Justin believed it [the affair] and [the victim] did not know Justin believed it,” Kidd said. “[The man in the incident] walked into that home without any inkling that Justin Granet had any ill will toward him.”
Lee argued throughout the trial that Granet’s actions were in self-defense.
“If you’re in your house, you don’t have to retreat,” Lee said. “You can stand your ground.”
Granet opted to testify in court Thursday because he said, “The truth needs to be told.” In his testimony, he said he never intended for a physical altercation to occur, that he simply wanted to clear the air and that the man in the incident was the aggressor.
“I wanted to talk so I could clarify exactly what was going on and hear it from all parties,” he said. “And, also, after talking with [Granet’s wife] about it, I realized [the victim’s wife] had no idea [they] had been together.”
The incident
On March 11, 2019, a married couple, identified as Granet’s friends, went to his home on Chaplin Drive on St. Helena Island. When they got there, Granet and another friend, identified as Bliss, were at the house.
After arriving, the four of them hugged and, after catching up and readying to leave, Granet said he put his hand on the man’s shoulder and whispered that his wife had told him “everything,” referring to the affair.
The man then attacked him, Granet said during testimony. “I was attacked in my home,” he said.
“I said, ‘Why are you trying to attack me?’” Granet said. “I do not want to fight, I just want to talk.”
The victim said in his testimony Tuesday that he went to Granet’s house that night and he was attacked and his wife was made to watch at gunpoint. Both the man and his wife said they were restrained with zip-ties and duct tape.
“I honestly thought I was going to die,” the man told the jury.
Police got to the home after receiving a 911 hangup call. Inside the home, deputies found four pounds of marijuana, duct tape, rope and two firearms. Deputies also found a blunt object they believed may have been used to beat the man, revealed in trial to be a black flashlight.
The man injured in the incident was taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital and later to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston with injuries that include skull fractures and a brain bleed. Granet had an injury to his hand following the incident.
Neither the man nor his wife was present Friday to hear the verdict but a victim’s advocate relaying their statement in court said “tonight is the first night in four years they will be able to sleep.”
