Hilton Head woman denied role in violent home invasion. Her phone said otherwise, cops say
After her boyfriend was arrested in connection with a grisly home invasion and shooting that injured an entire family, a Hilton Head woman told police she knew nothing about the crime. Her text messages told a different story, according to the Ridgeland Police Department.
Te’Ara Davon Wilson, 23, was charged Thursday with neglect in reporting a crime and as an accessory to a felony, Jasper County jail records show.
Wilson’s is the fourth and final arrest expected in connection with the July 6 home invasion, which at the request of Ridgeland police is being investigated with the assistance of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. In the week-and-a-half following the incident, police apprehended three of the suspected perpetrators, all residents of Ridgeland: Deshaun Vadaul Heyward, 28; as well as brothers Derrick Lamont Blackshear, 25, and Arthur Lee Edwards Jr., 17.
Investigators interviewed Wilson after learning she was in a relationship with Heyward, but she denied being involved in the burglary, according to Lt. Daniel Litchfield, a spokesperson for Ridgeland police. But when officers executed a search warrant on her phone, they found texts that suggested “she had more involvement than she was letting on,” he said — including messages in which she had planned out the crime in advance with the three other suspects.
Despite being charged as an accessory, Wilson did not accompany the men during the alleged home invasion and was not in the group’s getaway car. The four suspects did not know the occupants of the Ridgeland residence and primarily carried out the burglary for money, investigators say.
Family held captive with handguns, taser
Residents of the mobile home on Wood Duck Street were likely asleep when the three armed men forced their way inside after midnight on July 6, assaulting the occupants and deploying a taser while demanding money. A father inside the home was shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the hand, during a struggle with the suspects as he tried to “protect his child,” according to a press release from Ridgeland police.
After staying in the home for about an hour, the suspects fled the scene with about $3,500 in cash, two handguns and several cellphones, Lt. Chris Warren previously told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. Family members then drove the gunshot victim to Coastal Carolina Hospital in Hardeeville.
All seven of the home’s occupants were attacked by the flashlight-style taser, including a 2-year-old child, Warren said. Five people requested treatment from EMS crews, although only the gunshot victim was hospitalized.
Heyward, Blackshear and Edwards were all charged with armed robbery, first-degree burglary, a felony firearms offense and seven counts of kidnapping, corresponding to the home’s seven occupants who were held against their will. Heyward faces an additional accusation of attempted murder for allegedly shooting the father; he was also charged with two counts of felony domestic violence through outstanding warrants from the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office.
Police will likely charge the three men with additional offenses stemming from further assaults that happened within the home, according to Warren.
The residence on Wood Duck Street is part of Carters Mill Estates, a mobile home community about a half-mile south of Ridgeland’s Main Street. In November of last year, a 3-year-old boy in the same neighborhood was killed in an accidental shooting involving an unsecured handgun.
This story was originally published July 31, 2024 at 9:56 AM.
