Police: Man who drove getaway car in SC murder arrested

The second arrest in as many days in connection a 2-year-old murder case has been announced by the Columbia Police Department.

Nelson Smith, 21, is charged with accessory after the fact in the 2013 killing of Nathaniel McKelvin. Police allege Smith drove co-defendant Jacob Green to 735 Martha St. where the crime occurred, and then drove him away after the shooting.

Green, 24, of Columbia was already in jail in connection with a 2014 shooting in Five Points when police announced Tuesday he also faces charges in McKelvin’s death of murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

The 21-year-old McKelvin was found shot to death Nov. 15, 2013, on the front porch of the Martha Street address in the Greenview neighborhood in north Columbia.

In announcing Green’s arrest, Police Chief Skip Holbrook said this week although a motive has not been determined, “the shooting was not a random act of violence and has ties to gang activity.”

The night of the shooting on Nov. 15, McKelvin had gone to a friend’s house on Martha Street to get a haircut from a friend and to hang out with neighborhood buddies, his family and friends told The State newspaper in 2013. They said he was excited because he had just earned his commercial driver’s license and was to start training that Monday for a new truck-driving job in Georgia.

From Staff Reports

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 9:21 AM with the headline "Police: Man who drove getaway car in SC murder arrested."