20-year-old pleads guilty to shooting woman in the head, SC prosecutor says
A 20-year-old Richland County resident will spend about four decades behind bars after halting his trial to plead guilty to fatally shooting a woman in the head, the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said.
Kendall Lamont Moody was sentenced to 38 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple crimes on the fourth day of his trial in a Lexington County courtroom, the solicitor’s office said Tuesday in a news release.
On Nov. 9, Moody was sentenced following his conviction on murder, conspiracy, and possession of a weapon during commission of a violent crime charges, according to the release.
The charges stem from Sept. 26, 2021, when Moody shot and killed 30-year-old Heather Jordan, the solicitor’s office said.
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The shooting happened in a home in the 1600 block of Northland Drive in Cayce, according to Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher. That’s in the area near U.S. 321/Charleston Highway, about a mile from Steel Hands Brewing.
During the trial, a witness testified that multiple people were inside of a bedroom with Jordan prior to the shooting, according to the release. The witness described the environment as “hostile” and stated that he observed Moody place a .22 Ruger rifle to Jordan’s head and saw him pull the trigger, the solicitor’s office said.
Moody, Jordan and two other men had been involved in a burglary or theft on Sept. 25 or Sept. 26 and had gone to the Northland Drive home to use drugs and discuss the crime, Cayce Police Chief Chris Cowan said in 2021. They got into a dispute, and Moody shot Jordan in the head, according to investigators.
Moody left the scene after shooting Jordan and discarded the rifle in a nearby wooded area, but he was taken into custody by law enforcement the following day, according to the release.
The Cayce Police Department searched the home and recovered a fired .22 cartridge case in the bedroom, several feet away from the closet where Jordan’s body was found, the solicitor’s office said. The 30-year-old died at the scene, according to Fisher.
During the trial, an expert with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division testified that the .22 Ruger rifle fired the .22 casing found at the crime scene, according to the release. Additional evidence presented at trial showed that DNA taken from the grip of the .22 rifle was consistent with Moody’s DNA profile, the solicitor’s office said.
Deputy Solicitor Suzanne Mayes and Assistant Solicitor Kelly Oppenheimer prosecuted the case, and no plea offers were made, according to the release. Public defenders Sarah Hahn Mauldin and Robert Heath Owen were listed as Moody’s counsel, Lexington County court records show.
Moody is not eligible for parole under South Carolina law.
The two other men — Michael Allen Ponder Sr. and Charles Cavin Craft — were also arrested following Jordan’s death.
Accessory after murder and conspiracy charges are still pending against Ponder, Lexington County court records show. Bond was set at $135,000 on the combined charges, and the 41-year-old West Columbia resident has remained locked up in the Lexington County Detention Center since Oct. 5, 2021, according to jail records.
Craft, a 20-year-old West Columbia resident, is also still being held at the Lexington County Detention Center, where he was incarcerated on Oct. 7, 2021, jail records show.
Craft was charged with accessory after murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, failure to stop for blue light, resisting arrest with a gun, possessing a gun during a violent crime and possessing a stolen vehicle, records show. His bond was set at $10,000 on the combined charges, according to jail records.
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This story was originally published November 14, 2023 at 2:16 PM with the headline "20-year-old pleads guilty to shooting woman in the head, SC prosecutor says."
