New York man gets life in prison for double murder at Hardeeville apartments
A New York City man received life in prison for fatally shooting two acquaintances at a Hardeeville apartment complex in front of several young children, according to the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Following a three-day trial, a Jasper County jury found 51-year-old Charles Saunders guilty of two counts of murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime on Feb. 19.
Saunders was convicted in the June 18, 2024 killings of Hardeeville residents Alesia Dykes, 40, and Bernard Alexander Lyles, 38, at the Walsh Drive Apartments. He was arrested several hours after the fatal gunfire when he was spotted at a Waffle House in Ridgeland, officials said.
Gunfire rang out at the complex off Hardeeville’s Main Street after the victims got into an argument with Saunders in the early afternoon. Dykes and Lyles went inside the apartment when the dispute turned physical, prosecutors said, but Saunders stepped into the unit’s entryway, brandished a 9mm handgun from his waistband and opened fire.
One of three young children inside the apartment ran to a relative’s house at the nearby Deer Run Apartments for help, according to a solicitor’s office press release.
Dykes had died of gunshot wounds when authorities arrived. Lyles was rushed to Coastal Carolina Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Saunders fled the area after the shooting, officials said, but investigators found a shirt he had discarded in a trash can on Main Street. Forensic analysis revealed gunshot residue on the material.
Dykes had been friends with Saunders in New York and had introduced him to her sister, with whom he later had a son, the solicitor’s office said. Saunders was visiting South Carolina after that son had a child of his own, prosecutors said, and the defendant had been staying with Dykes for about three weeks before the shooting.
Saunders and Lyles were reportedly arguing in the days before the double murder. Officials said Saunders had posted a video of himself holding guns and threatening to shoot someone.
“This defendant chose to repay trust and hospitality with violence of the most horrendous sort,” 14th Circuit Assistant Solicitor Trasi Campbell, who prosecuted the case, said in the press release. “Charles Saunders has lived a life of violence, and today’s outcome ensures he no longer endangers the public.”
In New York, Saunders had previously been convicted of assault, conspiracy, criminal use of a firearm and illegal possession of a firearm, according to the solicitor’s office.
Inmate records from the S.C. Department of Corrections show Saunders was admitted Monday to the state’s Kirkland Correctional Institution, a maximum security facility for male convicts.
