15-year-old charged in NC’s man York killing will stay jailed to avoid ‘retribution’
A South Carolina judge on Tuesday ordered a teenager to remain jailed on a murder charge in the killing of a North Carolina man that police and prosecutors said could have gang ties.
The 15-year-old suspect has been in juvenile custody since about a week after the May 4 shooting death of Jai’Shaun Young, 21, of Gastonia, N.C. The teen made his first juvenile court appearance on murder and attempted murder charges Tuesday. His identity is not being released because of his age.
The teen will remain in custody at the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice for the safety of the community and his own safety after police testified Tuesday of the possibility of gang involvement in the shooting, Family Court Judge Thomas White said.
”There could be some kind of retribution,” White said.
The teen was on juvenile probation at the time of the killing after previous incidents of assault and battery and marijuana possession, prosecutors said in court.
Prosecutor Erin Joyner of the 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said Young and other men from Gastonia were at the Galilean Road house visiting female friends when as many as 15 shots hit Young and the outside of the house. The second person outside the house was not hurt, Joyner said.
Kiera Fayall, a detective with the York Police Department, testified the teen was at the scene when the shots were fired. Officers seized two guns days afterward, police and prosecutors said in court.
But defense lawyers for the teen said police have no fingerprints or eyewitness other than a co-defendant putting the teen at the crime scene. DNA found on on the guns does not match him, said 16th Circuit Senior Public Defender Stacey Coleman, the teen’s lawyer.
A second 15-year-old boy from York facing murder and attempted murder who is also in DJJ custody has not yet appeared in court.
This story was originally published May 29, 2024 at 12:57 PM.
CORRECTION: Stacey Coleman is senior public defender for the 16th Circuit. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated her title.
