Prosecutors have dropped the murder charges against three teenagers arrested in the April 13 killing of 17-year-old Kahlil Simmons in Beech Island. Prosecutors said Friday that the original arrests were supported by probable cause, but that the record now available did not justify continuing the prosecutions.
Simmons was killed in a shooting on April 13, according to the Post and Courier. A 16-year-old boy was also shot in the same incident on Goodman Road and survived, the outlet reported. Among those arrested in connection with the case were 18-year-old Jared Marsh and 17-year-old Tyler Hans Lariscey.
Marsh and two juveniles were arrested and charged with murder on April 21, based on the evidence and witness testimony available at the time, according to the same account. The Second Circuit Solicitor's Office said the charges against the other two defendants were also dismissed, citing the court's findings and its own assessment of their culpability.
New Account Points to Attempted Robbery
Prosecutors' revised account centers on what happened immediately before the shooting. Evidence they reviewed indicated the encounter began as an attempted armed robbery, with Simmons pointing a firearm at another teenager shortly before the fatal shots, the Post and Courier reported. Testimony reviewed by prosecutors indicated that three teenagers went to the location believing they were meeting for a firearms trade, before Simmons produced a gun and pointed it at one of them.
That account marks a significant departure from the original murder case built in the days after Simmons' death. Two adults, Tarah Alexander and Bryan Alexander, were also charged as accessories after the fact to murder in connection with the case.
A Separate Aiken County Case
A different Aiken County shooting illustrates that youth cases can follow a distinct legal path: WRDW/WAGT reported that Antonio Jones, who was 15 at the time of the June 26, 2022, triple shooting on Wadley Drive, was later to be charged as an adult. That report concerns a separate case and does not describe its final outcome.
The case has shifted from murder arrests announced in late April to the dismissal of all three murder charges this week. Prosecutors say evidence reviewed after the arrests recast the Goodman Road encounter as an attempted robbery that escalated into a fatal shooting, rather than a planned killing.
