SC man skipped court, killed his ex in front of her kids. Now, he’s off to prison.
On the night she was killed, Marandy “Jade” Brandon arrived home to her Rock Hill apartment late in the evening.
She had her three kids. The children were 9, 6 and 4 years old. Two boys and a girl.
Brandon had been attacked twice before, including a week earlier, by her ex-boyfriend, who was stalking her, police and prosecutors say. Even the kids, prosecutors say, checked to make sure the doors and windows were locked after they got home.
“Jade was punched, strangled and choked in those earlier incidents,” said 16th Circuit Assistant Solicitor Jenny Desch, in court Tuesday.
Both times her ex-boyfriend, Jefferson Quinde-Quishpe, an immigrant from Ecuador, was arrested for domestic violence. Both times he was freed on bond with orders to stay away from Brandon, court documents show.
“He refused to follow the no-contact orders,” Desch said.
After the second attack — a week before Brandon was killed — prosecutors summoned Quinde-Quishpe back to court and planned to revoke his bond. The court date was set for Sept. 18, 2017. But Quinde-Quishpe never showed up.
Instead, later that night, prosecutors say, he went to Brandon’s apartment.
He had parked a car nearby and camouflaged the car. He hid behind a bedroom door, said Desch the prosecutor. Then he stabbed Jade Brandon, 20 times, in front of her kids, until she was dead.
She was 25.
“She was screaming so that her kids could get away,” said another prosecutor, Willy Thompson. “Imagine the pain. The terror.”
Quinde-Quishpe then turned the knife on himself and stabbed himself repeatedly in the abdomen until the police arrived. Officers had to use a stun gun to get Quinde-Quishpe to stop mutilating himself, testimony showed.
After recovering at a hopsital, Quinde-Quishpe was arrested for murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Tuesday, more than two years later, Quinde-Quishpe pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the murder and weapon charges.
All that remained was whether he would have a chance at freedom, or die in prison.
Testimony Tuesday at Quinde-Quishbe’s guilty plea hearing in York showed he was abused in Ecuador and came legally to America as a child. His lawyer, Chris Wellborn, argued that Quinde-Quishpe had no memory of the attack, and has suffered hallucinations since childhood. Wellborn asked for the minimum sentence for murder — 30 years in prison.
“There is no doubt the victim died a horrible death,” Wellborn said in court.
Yet prosecutors Desch, Thompson, and Kevin Brackett argued that Quinde-Quishpi’s attacks on Brandon in such a cruel and violent way in front of her children demand life in prison without parole.
“This defendant was lying in wait, he knew what he was doing,” Brackett said. “The only way anyone will be safe is if he is in prison for life.”
Brandon’s sister and father said in court that Quinde-Quishpe chose to kill the victim in front of her kids. The family asked for life in prison.
“Judge, show no mercy — Jefferson showed none,” said Christopher Brandon, Jade’s father.
York County Circuit Court Judge Dan Hall said in court that the evidence showed Quinde-Quishpe was mentally ill at the time of the crime. But Quinde-Quishpe knew enough to drive to the house, hide, then kill Brandon, Hall said the evidence showed.
“She was savagely attacked,” Hall said in court.
Quinde-Quishpe, 28, did not speak in court except to say he was guilty. An English/Spanish interpreter was used in court.
During the entire court hearing, two photos of Jade in life - as an adult and as a child, were displayed in court. In both she was smiling.
The pictures of a smiling Jade Brandon were still on an easel in the courtroom as the judge readied to sentence the killer. On one side of the picture was as three-word phrase. It said, simply: “Justice for Jade.”
Hall ended the hearing with these words: “The sentence is life in prison.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 2:58 PM.
