SC man gets time served for gun after Rock Hill block party murder charge dropped
.jpeg)
A South Carolina man who had been charged with murder in a 2024 neighborhood block party shooting in Rock Hill has been sentenced to time served after pleading guilty to a lesser gun offense.
D’Markieoun Ji’Shae Clyburn, 21, of Lancaster County, pleaded to pointing and presenting a firearm in an Alford plea Friday in York County criminal court.
The murder charge and another weapon charge were dismissed as part of a negotiated plea agreement for time served between York County prosecutors and Clyburn’s lawyer, Zach Merritt of the MLB law firm in Rock Hill.
Clyburn had been in jail since early June 2024 after the shooting happened in the Southland Park neighborhood, where hundreds of people attended the annual function, according to police and court records. He had been charged with killing 44-year-old Montest Mincey, one of the two victims.
Visiting Judge Chris Taylor accepted the negotiated plea deal. He suspended a three-year sentence under the state’s Youthful Offender Act, with credit for 610 days in jail.
Judge Taylor told Clyburn he did not have to admit guilt under the Alford plea, but has to agree prosecutors could have presented evidence that could have convicted him if the pointing and presenting case went to trial.
Prosecutor: Evidence showed at least 13 guns fired
Two people died in the shooting in 2024. Prosecutor Matthew Shelton told the judge that police continued to investigate and test evidence collected at the crime scene. A State Law Enforcement Division analysis showed “at least 13 guns were fired in the melee,” Shelton said in court.
Shelton said that made it “not likely a jury would convict Mr. Clyburn of murder,” so prosecutors dropped the murder charge. There was enough evidence for the pointing and presenting charge, he said.
Charges remain pending against other defendants in the case, Shelton said.
Defense: Clyburn maintains his innocence
Clyburn was in court but did not speak other than to plead guilty to the pointing and presenting charge.
Merritt, his lawyer, said in court Clyburn always said he did not fire a gun. He told Judge Taylor that Clyburn is “anxious to move on with his life.”
In a statement to The Herald after court, Merritt said the “resolution represents an excellent outcome for my client: He entered a plea to a single lesser gun charge, a unique concession and compromise by the State that reflects the dramatic reduction from the original murder charge while honoring my client’s innocence. He has maintained his innocence from the outset, and the Youthful Offender Act disposition provides a constructive path forward that, in time, allows this matter to be removed from his record.”
