Stephen Wayne Stinnette II Sentenced to 35 Years in 2018 SC Murder of Jerry Lamars Johnson
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Lake body buried twice before being dumped; four in custody, one sought
By MARTHA ROSE BROWN
The Times and Democrat
A Sumter man was buried twice before his body was dumped in Lake Marion near Eutawville, according to Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis.
A fisherman found the body of 31-year-old Jerry Lamars Johnson on April 25 in a cove off of Vacation Lane, a couple of blocks from the Indian Bluff Park and boat landing.
Four people are in custody and one person is being sought in connection with his death.
Stephen Wayne Stinnette II, 31, of 1722 Pinewood Road, Sumter, has been charged with murder. He’s accused of shooting and killing Johnson.
Stinnette’s mother, Lisa Avins, 57, of the same address, is facing the charge of accessory after the fact of murder.
Kimberly McFaddin McLeod, 36, of 820 Bay Blossom Avenue and Andrew Thomas Scurry, 36, of 2595 U.S. Highway 15 South, both of Sumter, are also charged with accessory after the fact of murder.
Anthony Dustin Dill, 32, of 1280 Bell Road, Mayesville, is being sought on a charge of accessory after the fact of murder. Authorities believe he is armed and dangerous.
Dennis said Stinnette’s co-defendants helped bury Johnson’s body twice and then transport his body to Orangeburg County, where they dumped it in the Vacation Lane cove.
Stinnette’s body was moved multiple times because some of the suspects became suspicious that someone may have told authorities about the location of Johnson’s body, Dennis said during a Monday press conference.
Dennis said investigators are trying to determine what led an argument to turn deadly.
“We’re still trying to determine the motive. We know that the victim and suspects were acquaintances,” Dennis said.
Dennis declined to give the specific location of Johnson’s killing and the two graves where he was temporarily buried, but he noted that Johnson was killed in a wooded area.
With each of the suspects being white and the victim African-American, Dennis said, “We haven’t ruled out the possibility of a hate crime, but certainly our investigation now is leading us that it’s not a hate crime.”
“In this case, they were all acquaintances and familiar with one another,” Dennis said.
He also noted that Johnson’s killing doesn’t appear to be gang-related either.
Investigators are trying to determine if drugs were involved.
Dennis said other arrests may be forthcoming as the case remains under investigation.
On April 24, some of Johnson’s family filed a missing person’s report with the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
By the next day, Johnson’s body was floating in Lake Marion, but it wasn’t until April 27 that the Orangeburg County Coroner’s Office was able to make a positive identification, according to Dennis.
“We are very heartbroken at this situation. We never thought something like this would happen,” said Darron Brown, Johnson’s uncle.
“Once you lose life, that’s it, you don’t get it back,” he said on Monday after the press conference ended.
Brown said his nephew leaves behind two children, ages 8 and 5.
“He was a family man,” Brown said. “They will be missing him.”
“Right now, we’re just trying to keep them strong and hold them up,” he said. “We’ve always been a close-knitted family.”
Brown described his nephew as a “good, all-around person who had a good heart.”
Earlier on Monday, family and friends gathered to pay their final respects to Johnson.
Third Circuit Solicitor Chip Finney hasn’t eliminated the possibility of prosecutors seeking the death penalty in the case.
“That would have to be determined in the final investigation,” Finney said.
“I want to certainly say that we have been briefed by the sheriff’s office and these investigators over the past three days to keep up with these developments,” he said.
Dennis expressed his appreciation to the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, Clarendon County Sheriff’s Office and Richland County Sheriff’s Department for their assistance in the ongoing case.
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