Accused shooter out on bond during killing
A man is accused of killing another man in a parking lot last week while out on bond on charges of attempted armed robbery and attempted murder, The State reported.
Dequan Vereen got out of jail after his bond was lowered by Circuit Court Judge Alison Lee, who also lowered the bond of a man who was later accused of killing baker Kelly Hunnewell in a gang-related attack.
Hunnewell’s death led to a public uproar over bond laws relating to violent offenders who are later arrested on additional violent charges.
Vereen’s bond was lowered to $50,000 from $175,000 in February. He was arrested after being shot in a shootout with a convenience store clerk in an attempted robbery, according to Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott.
He is now being held without bond after being charged in the shooting death of Robert Jewell, 51, of Columbia.
*Former state representative charged in barroom brawl *
An Abbeville man and a former state representative were arrested after a barroom brawl that led to a stabbing, the Greenwood Index-Journal reported.
James “Bob” Shirley, 61, served in the state House of Representatives for one term. He is facing a third-degree assault and battery charge.
Mason Ashley, 40, was charged with attempted murder, second-degree assault and battery and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Officers responded to the Pop-a-Top Sports Bar and Grill around 4:15 a.m. Saturday and found a man and a woman stabbed in the upper body and suffering from minor injuries. The male victim found Shirley urinating on his car, according to the female victim. When the man asked Shirley to stop, he punched him and started a fight, she told police.
When the female victim tried to pull the male victim away from the fight and leave, Ashley stabbed them both, she said.
SC first in women killed by men for second year
South Carolina’s No. 1 again, but it’s not quite a cause for celebration.
The state had the highest rate of women killed by men in the country for the second year in a row, The State reported. In 2011, the most recent year from which data was available, 61 women were killed, and only four of those women were killed by strangers.
South Carolina’s rate of women murdered by men was 2.54 per 100,000 people, more than double the national average, according to the Violence Policy Center.
State Attorney General Alan Wilson proposed changing the cap on bond for criminal domestic violence suspects. Currently, the maximum bond for a first–time criminal domestic violence arrest is $5,000. At most, a man arrested for beating his wife would pay $500 to get out of jail.
Wilson said raising the cap would keep suspects in jail longer, giving them a “cooling–off period.”