SC man may have taken strange drug before breaking into school, lawyer says
A South Carolina man accused of kidnapping a child from a Chester school on Halloween will remain jailed without bail, but questions remain about a drug bought at a store that he may have smoked beforehand.
D’arrius Tyrese Edwards, 21, appeared in Chester County criminal court Monday asking for bail after the incident at a Chester Park complex school. He shattered a school window by diving through headfirst, fought with a teacher, then grabbed the non-verbal 3-year-old boy before deputies at the school subdued him, prosecutor Candice Lively said.
He is charged with kidnaping, three counts of assault and battery, burglary, and disrupting schools.
Derrick Mobley, Edwards’ lawyer, told visiting Judge Paul Burch that Edwards may have been under the influence of a “synthetic” drug after smoking a substance bought from a smoke shop earlier that day.
Both prosecutors and the defense want toxicology tests from Edwards’ blood and a mental health evaluation done to determine what drug he ingested before the incursion that caused a school lockdown and massive police presence at the school 20 miles south of Rock Hill. Edwards has been jailed without bail since arrest.
Burch denied bail Monday, but said that is a “qualified denial” and said he wants the lab results and mental health review expedited.
“He has no record, and comes from a well established family here,” Burch said. “It’s just bizarre.”
Edwards can ask for another hearing to seek bail after the results come back, Mobley said.
School intrusion scared the public
Edwards was with an “on-again, off-again girlfriend” before the incident, Lively said.
After smoking the “blunt” purchased at a smoke shop, Edwards became combative with the woman, including hitting and biting her before going to the school where his mother worked, according to Lively. A teacher saw him outside on the school playground then at a window before Edwards smashed it with his head to get inside.
“He jumped through the glass window like he was diving into a pool,” Lively said.
Edwards then fought with a teacher who intervened before grabbing the child, then jumped back out through the broken window with the boy, Lively said. The child needed stitches.
School resource officers who work on the campus ran to the scene and took him into custody.
Edwards had no relationship to the child, Lively said.
Prosecutor: Edwards remains a public danger
Lively argued Edwards is a danger to the public if he is released as the testing is done to figure out what drugs he may have taken beforehand.
“We don’t know why he acted this way,” Lively said.
But even with the “why” in question, what happened terrified the public, Lively said. Edwards “squeezed and dangled” the child after forcibly entering the school and fighting with a teacher who tried to protect children, Lively said.
“This was a horrific situation at the school with the most vulnerable of our community,” Lively told the judge. “He chose this child who could not even scream for help.”
Defense: Edwards had “psychotic breakdown”
Edwards was in court but did not speak. Dozens of family and supporters filled the courtroom at the Chester County Courthouse.
Mobley apologized to the community for what happened on Halloween. Edwards has no criminal record or mental health history and comes from a well-respected family of professionals, Mobley said. He said the incident is not reflective of who Edwards is.
More, Mobley argued that what Edwards got at the smoke shop could be a synthetic substance Edwards did not know he was getting. He said the material was “purportedly marijuana,” but wants evidence seized by law enforcement tested to see what was in it.
Toxicology and evidence testing, “may explain to the community what happened,” Mobley said.
Mobley argued Edwards may have consumed something he did not know about.
“We are thinking it is synthetic, that he purchases it and does not know it,” Mobley said. “It appears to affect him in a psychotic manner.”
Edwards said Mobley he does not remember what happened after getting to the school.
“He said it takes control of his body,” Mobley told Burch. “This was a psychotic breakdown.”
Mobley asked for a “reasonable bond” that would include house arrest and GPS monitoring as the case moves forward.
Smoke shop drugs, toxicology
Materials purchased at a smoke shop are already at the center of a pending York County double murder case.
In late 2024, a Columbia man was accused of shooting three people, killing two at a Rock Hill smoke shop. Police and prosecutors said he had ingested a psychedelic substance he bought at the store earlier that day. His lawyers admitted in court last year that Zachary East Elias did the shootings that were caught on video, but said he shot them after he ate a chocolate bar that had an illegal substance in it.
Burch brought up in court how an unknown drug and importance of toxicology can be crucial in a case.
He referenced a 2020 York County case he presided over in which a Lake Wylie woman, Lana Sue Clayton, poisoned her husband with eye drops in his drink. The substance she used to kill him only came to light weeks after the death, when a toxicology review of the victim’s body found the substance that killed Steven Clayton. Lana Sue Clayton is serving 25 years in prison.
Edwards will remain in the Chester County jail. No trial date has been set.
