1 convicted, 1 acquitted in Lancaster SC club shooting that left 2 dead, 8 wounded
One defendant was sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in a 2019 mass shooting at a South Carolina nightclub, and another defendant received five years for illegally possessing a gun that night despite being found not guilty of charges related to the shooting, according to court officials and lawyers in the case.
Two men died and eight people were wounded in the September 2019 shooting at the Ole Skool club in Lancaster. Henry Lee Colvin, 29, of Rock Hill, and Aaron Harris, 28, of Kershaw, were killed.
Breante Deon Stevens and Antonia Emmanuel Champion were on trial — each charged with two counts of murder and eight counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, court records show. The trial went on for almost two weeks.
Late Friday, a jury found Stevens, 33, of Lancaster, guilty of the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Colvin, said Randy Newman, 6th Circuit Solicitor, and Stevens’ lawyer, Montrio Belton.
Stevens was convicted of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature for the injuries to another victim, Newman and Belton said. Stevens was also convicted of three weapons charges, the lawyers said.
South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Brian Gibbons sentenced Stevens to 50 years in prison, according to Lancaster County Clerk of Court Jeff Hammond and the lawyers in the case.
The same jury found Champion, 32, of Fort Mill, not guilty of all 10 charges stemming from the shooting, according to Newman and Champion’s lawyer, Nathan Sheldon.
Shootings drew national attention
The shooting at the nightclub on Sept. 21, 2019 attracted national attention because of the number of people killed and wounded. The shootings were covered by media organizations including Fox News, CNN, and CBS.
The shootings happened just outside the city of Lancaster. Lancaster is located south of Charlotte and east of Rock Hill.
Both defendants had been in jail since their arrests shortly after the shootings.
Stevens was captured in Florida after the shootings and extradited back to South Carolina to face trial.
Crucial to the case was the question of who was firing guns and how many guns were fired during the nightclub shooting, defense lawyers said after the trial. Stevens’ lawyer, Belton, said multiple guns were fired that night.
Champion not guilty at trial, but guilty of gun charge
Champion pleaded guilty before the trial started to a single count of possession of a weapon by a person convicted of a crime of violence from a gun he had at the nightclub the night of the shooting, lawyers in the case said. Judge Gibbons sentenced Champion to five years in prison for that conviction after the trial finished, said Sheldon, Champion’s lawyer.
Sheldon said the jury found Champion not guilty of all the other allegations against him from the shooting incident, Sheldon said.
“Mr. Champion is obviously satisfied with the result and relieved that after two years this matter has been resolved,” Sheldon told The Herald Friday night after the trial. “Both he and I believe the jury of his peers rendered the correct verdict.”
Stevens not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter and assault
The jury convicted Stevens of manslaughter in one death and assault and battery for one injury, lawyers in the case said. Stevens was also convicted of two counts of possession of a firearm during a violent crime, and one count of possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a crime of violence, according to court records and the lawyers in the case.
Belton, Stevens’ lawyer, told The Herald after the trial that even with the guilty verdicts against Stevens for manslaughter and assault, the jury verdicts validate Stevens’ position that there were other people shooting in the club.
In a video pre-trial bond hearing after his arrest in 2019, Stevens claimed he was shot at in the incident.
Stevens was found not guilty of seven counts of assault and battery and not guilty in one of the deaths, Belton said.
“The jury has spoken and I respect the jury’s decision,” Belton said.
Belton said no decision has been made by Stevens on an appeal. Stevens has 10 days to file court documents seeking an appeal, Belton said.
Belton said he plans to file a motion to the court to reconsider the 50-year sentence Stevens received.
Stevens is a convicted felon who had served time in the S.C. Department of Corrections before the shootings, according to court and SLED records.
Prosecutors after the trial
The case was prosecuted by Newman and assistant solicitors Melissa McGinnis and Luck Campbell.
McGinnis told The Herald late Friday that prosecutors were disappointed that there were not murder convictions for both deaths, and not assault and battery convictions for seven of the eight people hurt. Prosecutors respect the jury’s decision, McGinnis said.
“Our hearts go out to the victims and their families,” McGinnis said.
No one else has been arrested in connection with the shootings.
McGinnis said prosecutors believed the judge gave the appropriate sentence of 50 years to Stevens after Stevens was convicted of shooting inside the crowded nightclub.
Stevens received the maximum of 30 years for manslaughter and the maximum of 20 years for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, South Carolina law shows.
Judge Gibbons ruled the two sentences of 30 and 20 years will run consecutively, for a total of 50 years in prison, McGinnis said.
