Only one defendant appears in court; attorneys seek more time before bond considered
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
One of five suspects facing decades in prison in connection with the July 4 shooting at Coligny Beach appeared in a Beaufort County courtroom Wednesday, but no bond was set for any of the defendants.
Andre Nyciere-Richard Greene Jr., 20, of Ridgeland, appeared before Circuit Court Judge Marvin Dukes III at the Beaufort County Courthouse. Greene waived his bond hearing while his attorney awaits additional information in the case.
He will remain in custody at the Jasper County Detention Center. A new hearing date was not announced in court.
The other four defendants scheduled for Wednesday’s proceeding — Jayden Lorenzo Hawes, 18; Quazeir Rasheem Davis, 17; Marcello Lopez Royal, 17; and Jacob Malik Johnson, 22 — did not appear. Their attorneys waived their appearances and asked that bond be addressed later, after they receive more information.
Davis, Royal and Hawes were being held on bench warrants, according to statements made in court Wednesday. Johnson’s bond also was not set.
The five defendants were among seven people indicted by a Beaufort County grand jury July 16 in connection with the shooting, which wounded eight people near the volleyball courts at the popular Hilton Head Island beach.
The indictments are formal charging documents. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
Charges carry decades in possible prison time
Hawes, Davis, Royal, Greene and Johnson were each indicted on two counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, four counts of second-degree assault and battery, breach of the peace of a high and aggravated nature and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.
Davis and Royal were also indicted on charges of possessing or acquiring a handgun while under 18.
Each of the five faces more than 60 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
Two other defendants were indicted in connection with the investigation but were not included in Wednesday’s proceeding.
Christopher Charles Capers II, 17, of St. Helena Island, was indicted on a charge of accessory after the fact.
Amarion Jameer Riley, 22, of Ridgeland, was indicted on charges of possessing a machine gun and breach of the peace of a high and aggravated nature.
Riley, who suffered a gunshot wound during the Coligny incident, was later identified as a suspect. Sheriff P.J. Tanner said investigators found Riley with a modified handgun capable of automatic fire when he was arrested in Jasper County. That weapon was not connected to the July 4 shooting but resulted in the machine-gun charge against him.
Investigators recovered a different modified handgun on Coligny Beach.
Shooting follows dispute between two groups
The shooting occurred shortly after 8:20 p.m., near the public beach access and volleyball courts as thousands of residents and visitors gathered on Hilton Head Island for Independence Day festivities.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office received the first reports of gunfire at approximately 8:21 p.m. Because numerous law enforcement officers were already assigned to the island for the holiday, the first deputies reached the scene about 17 seconds later.
“It was one of the quickest responses you’re ever going to see,” Tanner said during a July 5 media briefing.
Investigators believe the violence began when two groups of young people, including men and women between the ages of 17 and 19, encountered one another near the beach access.
Tanner offered more detail about the confrontation during a July 17 press conference.
“This entire incident was a result of juvenile ego,” Tanner said. “It was a look. So one person got a look from another that he didn’t like. He felt it disrespected him. And then from there it turned into a fist fight. And from the fist fight it turned into gunplay.”
Eight adults suffered gunshot wounds or other gunshot-related injuries. Tanner previously said one person suffered a grazing wound to the head, another was shot in the neck and another was struck three times, including twice in the stomach. Other victims suffered wounds to the shoulder, arm, leg and foot.
The injuries were described as non-life-threatening.
Cameras help identify suspects
A Sheriff’s Office mobile Verkada camera trailer stationed at Coligny Beach captured much of the incident. Investigators then entered information about a suspect vehicle into Hilton Head Island’s Flock license plate-reader system.
The system identified the vehicle on Pope Avenue at 9:02 p.m. Deputies stopped it on the Cross Island Parkway bridge five minutes later.
Six people in the vehicle were detained, and four were arrested that night.
Why attempted-murder charges were dropped
Hawes, Davis and Royal were initially arrested on attempted-murder charges, but those charges were not included in the grand jury indictments.
Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone said South Carolina’s attempted-murder statute applies only to the intended targets of a shooting. Because investigators believe the alleged shooters were firing at one another, prosecutors had to decide whether to treat them as victims or defendants.
“We had a choice,” Stone said. “Call the other shooters victims or defendants, and we chose defendants.”
Prosecutors instead pursued assault and battery charges on behalf of the innocent bystanders caught in the gunfire.
The strategy dates to the 2012 killing of 8-year-old Khalil Singleton, who was struck during a gun battle on Hilton Head Island. Prosecutors sought to hold all participants responsible, not only the person who fired the fatal shot. The South Carolina Supreme Court upheld that approach in 2020.
“The way I’ve explained it to juries before is every shooter is responsible for every bullet,” Stone said.
The investigation remains active, and authorities have said additional charges or arrests remain possible.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.