Bluffton man gets life in prison for 2023 murder of ex-girlfriend
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The murder of Okatie’s Jillian Angner
A Bluffton man faces a murder trial for what prosecutors called a calculated execution of his ex-girlfriend, a beloved employee of a local pharmacy who was fatally shot as she drove her child to school in early 2023.
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After bringing a surprise end to his murder trial by pleading guilty to all charges, a Bluffton man was sentenced to life in prison for a premeditated 2023 shooting that led to his ex-girlfriend’s death. He confessed in the courtroom Wednesday to targeting the woman’s car as she drove her 6-year-old son to school.
John Patrick Shea, 29, received a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of beloved Okatie mother Jillian Angner, 25. He was also given 5 years for a felony gun offense, 10 years for discharging a firearm into a vehicle and 30 years for the attempted murder of the victim’s son, Aiden.
Shea confessed Wednesday to the March 2, 2023, shooting that would later lead to Angner’s death. He was in the passenger seat of a friend’s pickup truck on a private drive when he sprayed Angner’s red Jeep with gunfire as she drove her son out of their remote neighborhood on Harrison Island Road.
Angner’s family chose to take her off life support about five months after the incident.
Sitting and holding hands in the courtroom gallery, friends and family of Angner let out excited gasps as Circuit Court Judge Bryan Doby read out his sentence around 2 p.m. Wednesday.
The sentencing followed a tearful series of speeches from Angner’s family in which they implored Doby to punish Shea to the fullest extent of the law, emphasizing in particular the killing’s effect on the son Angner left behind.
“By the end of it, the Aiden that I knew was gone forever,” Jillian’s sister Sidney Angner told the judge. “As far as I’m concerned, he died the same day his mother did.”
Shea’s mother also made a tearful plea to the judge, apologizing to the victim’s relatives while expressing her wish that her son had gotten the help he needed for his mental health and addiction issues.
“I just want the family to know that I am so very sorry. And I really did try,” she said, recounting her unsuccessful attempts to have Shea involuntarily hospitalized for his mental health prior to the shooting. “The system failed my child and I couldn’t get him the help he needed. I’m very sorry for (the family’s) suffering.”
Doby retired to his chamber for 10 minutes after impact statements “to collect (his) thoughts,” he told the courtroom. When he returned, he skewered Shea’s pleas for leniency.
“You’re still attempting to tell me that it was someone else’s fault: that it wasn’t your fault, the system failed you,” Doby told Shea. “You have failed your family. ... The impact on the victim’s family is unspeakable. You have affected and ruined lives that I hope will one day recover from what your actions caused.”
The judge went on to say he would “always remember” the recording of the 911 call that was presented as evidence on Tuesday. Aiden’s grandmother, Beth Angner, lived on the same street as her daughter and was the first to come across the scene of the shooting.
Prosecutors said that as the boy rushed to her grandmother, he asked, “Mommy is dead; can I come live with you?”
And as Aiden’s grandmother drove the boy away from the scene, dispatch audio caught her worried question to the 6-year-old: “Are you okay?”
The boy’s answer was short and honest: “No.”
“(Aiden’s) words are powerful,” Doby told Shea moments before reading his sentencing Wednesday afternoon. “I hope you never forget those words, because I doubt that he will ever forget those words.”
This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 3:23 PM.
