‘Brutal stabbing’: Former Rock Hill football player admits slashing girlfriend to death
For more than three years, Yari Milan Wright wanted a trial after police and prosecutors said he slashed a girlfriend in a jealous rage on a rural South Carolina road in 2021 — then left her dying and fled to clean up the car and cover up the crime.
Monday in York County criminal court before a trial started, Wright changed his mind and admitted to Brittany Hardy’s gruesome killing. He was sentenced to 30 years.
The 23-year-old woman was stabbed in the face and neck by the former Northwestern High School state champion football player so many times that her last blood-choked word was “Yari,” when she was asked who had hurt her. Her ear was sliced off. She had defensive wounds on her arms, prosecutors said.
Hardy’s family sobbed in court as a sheriff’s detective, prosecutor and her aunt and uncle spoke abut the attack, in November 2021, west of Lake Wylie near the North Carolina border. Dozens packed the courtroom and wept as prosecutors and police detailed the violence.
Wright, 6 feet 2 and 280 pounds, was a foot taller and more than 150 pounds heavier than Hardy.
A neighbor who heard the commotion ran to the scene and tried to help the bleeding Hardy while calling 911.
Her family spoke of how Hardy was left for dead “like a dog” when Wright fled — instead of Wright just walking away that day before the brutal killing.
An aunt, Tracy Stratford, said family wanted Hardy to end the abusive relationship with Wright before she was killed.
“We want her voice to be heard,” Stratford said of her niece.
Sheriff’s Detective Devin Askew said he had never seen such carnage on a stabbing victim. He said the words “heinous, gruesome, horrible” accurately describe how badly Hardy was hurt before she died on the country lane. Her family gasped in court as he spoke of the injuries.
“I am glad her family does not have to see those pictures,” Askew said of the autopsy photos that would have been publicly shown in court had there been a trial.
11th-hour plea deal
The defense was set to present a case at trial that showed the two were in a toxic relationship, said Wright’s lawyer, Jack Swerling of Columbia. But the defense offered to plead guilty before the trial started to the lesser charge of manslaughter — which carries the maximum of 30 years in prison — rather than gamble on murder, which carries 30 years to life for a conviction.
The relationship between Wright and Hardy was “volatile” but there is “no doubt” Wright stabbed Hardy, Swerling said, describing it as a “heat of passion” killing.
16th Circuit Assistant Deputy Solicitor Misti Shelton, a prosecutor of more than 20 years, said the violence on Brittany Hardy was the “most brutal stabbing” she had seen in all the deaths she has seen in court. Wright took Hardy to a secluded spot in the woods, then stabbed her repeatedly before fleeing to Rock Hill.
Shelton said she saw long stretches of text messages long before the slaying that showed the strained relationship between Wright and Hardy, but on the day of the killing, it was Yari Wright who acted violently.
“That is not self-defense,” Shelton told visiting Judge Keith Kelly. “This was not her fault.”
Prosecutors agreed to the manslaughter plea because it was possible that a jury could come back at a trial with a guilty verdict of manslaughter, Deputy Solicitor John Anthony said.
Judge Kelly accepted the 30-year deal for manslaughter.
Wright apologizes: Can’t take it back
Other than a simple cocaine possession charge from 2021, Wright had no previous criminal record. He played football in high school on two Northwestern title teams, then went to S.C. State University, but left after a year, Swerling said.
He came home to Rock Hill and worked in a warehouse, where he was a quiet young man, Swerling said.
Wright’s parents described their son as peaceful and someone who did not seek confrontation. Dozens of Wright’s supporters were on one side of the packed courtroom while those who loved Hardy filled the other side.
Wright admitted in court to the facts of the case aside from acknowledging he had ever been abusive to Hardy before he killed her.
He apologized to Hardy’s family in court.
“I hate the situation,” Wright said. “I can’t take things back. I want to apologize to the family. I take responsibility for my actions as a man.”
What happens now?
Wright had been jailed for three-and-a-half years without bail since the killing.
After police found him trying to clean the car the day of the slaying, he led officers on a two-mile chase before he was surrounded and captured. Police found Hardy’s blood in the car and on Wright’s clothes, prosecutors said. They found more evidence against Wright at the crime scene.
He receives credit for 1,294 days of confinement, before Monday’s plea, toward the 30-year sentence.
Voluntary manslaughter is a no-parole offense so Wright must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence in the S.C. Department of Corrections before he can be considered for release.
