A St. Helena Man was convicted of the 2021 murder of his cousin Thursday.
A Saint Helena Island man was found guilty of murder Thursday after shooting and killing his cousin in 2021.
On May 29, 2021, a gathering at a Keystone Drive home, in Saint Helena, ended in tragedy when Stephan Quinton Polite shot and killed 30-year-old Anthony Rivers Jr. Witnesses at the gathering testified that Rivers came to the card game intoxicated. After arguing with his cousin, Polite went to his car to get his gun, the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said in a press release.
“This defendant further escalated the situation with his cousin when he armed himself and then threatened ‘to put (Rivers) in a wheelchair,’” said Samantha Molina of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case.
After pistol-whipping his cousin twice, Polite shot him in the chest while driving away from the home. Rivers later died in the hospital.
Polite received 30 years for the murder and five years for possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, after the three-day jury trial. He’ll serve the sentences concurrently.
Circuit Court Judge Brooks Goldsmith handed down the sentence.
