A Clemson University student took the stand Monday in the trial of a man accused of luring her into a terrifying ride, attacking her and driving away in her car. The case puts a closely watched 2024 confrontation back before an Anderson County jury nearly two years after the alleged assault.
Darrell Scott Brooks is on trial for kidnapping, assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct and larceny, according to WYFF News 4. Jurors were selected Monday before hearing opening statements and testimony, and the proceedings were scheduled to resume Tuesday morning at the Anderson County courthouse.
The allegations began in September 2024, when Brooks reportedly approached the student near an off-campus apartment complex and claimed he was a Clemson employee whose car had broken down. The Anderson County Sheriff’s Office said, according to WSNW, that the student agreed to give him a ride before he directed her to a church parking lot and attacked her with a folding razor-blade knife.
The situation changed when a passerby heard the student yelling for help and intervened, allowing her to escape, officials said. FOX Carolina reported that Brooks then fled in the student’s vehicle, leading deputies on a chase that ended after the car crashed near Westminster; a judge later denied him bond.
In court, the student identified Brooks and described how he knocked on a neighbor’s door before asking her for a ride, even though her three roommates were not home. She testified that Brooks later threatened to kill her with a yellow box cutter, while the defense argued the kidnapping charge cannot be proven because she voluntarily allowed him into the vehicle, as detailed by WYFF News 4.
The case also carries a significant criminal-history backdrop. A published South Carolina Court of Appeals opinion shows that Brooks was previously convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping in Oconee County, with those convictions affirmed in 2006.
The Kidnapping Charge Is The Central Legal Fight
The trial’s central question is whether the evidence supports the prosecution’s claim that Brooks unlawfully controlled and moved the student, as well as whether the alleged attack meets the charged criminal-sexual-conduct standard. Brooks remains presumed innocent in the current case unless jurors return a guilty verdict.
The prosecution is led by Micah Black, while Randy Chambers is representing Brooks. Testimony was set to continue Tuesday, with the jury expected to weigh the student’s account, the Good Samaritan’s intervention and the events surrounding the vehicle chase.
