Charlotte man free on drug bail charged with murder in Rock Hill SC cold case killing
A Charlotte man who had served time in prison and had been arrested multiple times in the past seven years has been charged with murder in a South Carolina cold case from 2014, according to police and jail records.
Jayquan Dante Wilmore, 27, was arrested Friday in the 2014 shooting death of Antonio Heath outside apartments in Rock Hill in November 2014, said Lt. Michael Chavis of the Rock Hill Police Department.
Wilmore is charged with murder, conspiracy and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, York County court and jail records show.
Wilmore was arrested in Charlotte then extradited to South Carolina Friday, Mecklenburg and Rock Hill records show.
2014 killing had been unsolved
Heath, known as Tony, was killed at the Deerfield Run apartments in Rock Hill in 2014. He was shot in the leg and later died.
Heath was a family man with several children, The Herald reported. The public held vigils for Heath after he was killed.
Detectives considered the case cold but had continued to seek information and evidence, Chavis said.
“Detectives worked this case for years and continued to look for those responsible,” Chavis said.
Police have a second suspect in the killing, but have not publicly identified that person, Chavis said.
Police have not released what new evidence led to the murder charge against Wilmore.
Suspect was free on bail, had served prison time
Police and prosecutors allege that Wilmore has been involved in other criminal activity between Heath’s death and Friday’s arrest.
He was free on bail the past two years after he was arrested for six drug charges in November 2019, York County police and court records show. Those charges remain pending in York County criminal court.
Previously, Wilmore was found guilty of a weapon charge in York County in 2016 and sentenced to a year in prison for illegal carrying of a weapon, court records show.
He had already been sentenced to two years in prison in 2015 as a youthful offender after pleading guilty to drug charges from an August 2014 arrest.
What happens now?
Wilmore was denied bond late Friday in a court hearing on the murder charge in Heath’s death, court records show.
Under South Carolina law, he faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted of murder.
He remains at the York County jail. No trial date has been set.
