Jarmayne Jequan Wigfall pleaded guilty earlier this month in Berkeley County circuit court to voluntary manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old Juan Milford Jr., resolving a case that began with a murder charge following a 2023 roadside shooting along U.S. Highway 52. Circuit Judge Dale Van Slambrook sentenced Wigfall to 20 years in prison, with credit for 400 days already served.
Milford was found shot dead alongside U.S. Highway 52 near the border of Berkeley and Williamsburg counties on Feb. 9, 2023, according to the Post and Courier. A passing motorist discovered his body and notified authorities, and Berkeley County Coroner Darnell Hartwell ruled the death a homicide, per an earlier Post and Courier report on the discovery.
Wigfall was named a suspect on Feb. 12, 2023, and the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office arrested him just three days later, on Feb. 15, 2023 — six days after Milford's body was found — initially charging him with murder in connection with the fatal shooting, the newspaper's report noted at the time.
A St. Stephen Life Cut Short
Milford, known to loved ones as “JJ,” was raised in St. Stephen by his grandparents from infancy, attended Berkeley County public schools, and worshipped at Lighthouse Holiness Church, according to Gethers Funeral Home. He had worked at local businesses including Zaxby's, Hardee's, and Walmart, the funeral home's obituary notes, describing a teenager with deep roots in the small Berkeley County community where he grew up.
From Murder to Manslaughter
The shift from a murder charge to voluntary manslaughter reflects a specific legal threshold under South Carolina law. Murder requires proof of malice aforethought and carries a minimum penalty of 30 years to life, whereas voluntary manslaughter is defined as an unlawful killing without malice, committed in the sudden heat of passion upon sufficient legal provocation, according to the Law Office of Jonathan M. Harvey. Under South Carolina Code § 16-3-50, voluntary manslaughter is a felony carrying a mandatory minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 30 years in state prison, per the Law Office of James R. Snell, Jr., LLC — meaning Van Slambrook's 20-year sentence fell in the upper tier of that statutory range.
Van Slambrook, who accepted the plea, was elected to a newly created circuit court seat in South Carolina's 9th Judicial Circuit in April 2024 after serving a decade as Berkeley County's Master-in-Equity, according to the Post and Courier. Before joining the circuit bench, he primarily handled non-jury civil matters in that role.
Years Between Shooting and Sentencing
The roughly three-and-a-half-year gap between the 2023 shooting and this month's plea tracks with broader caseload pressures across the Lowcountry's court system. The 9th Judicial Circuit, which covers Berkeley and Charleston counties, reduced its backlogged circuit court cases from approximately 9,300 in 2020 down to roughly 7,600 by mid-2024, the Post and Courier reported in a separate piece on judicial elections. That progress has come even as homicide numbers statewide have moved in the opposite direction — South Carolina recorded 413 homicides in 2024, down 15.8% from 481 the year before and the lowest annual total since 2018, with overall violent crime dropping 8.4%, according to South Carolina Law Enforcement Division data cited in Hoodline's coverage of a separate Myrtle Beach case.
Local law enforcement resources dedicated to victims have also expanded in recent years. In 2023, the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office's Criminal Investigations Division assisted 1,536 crime victims and fielded nearly 1,600 victim advocate calls across the county, according to the sheriff's office's own reporting — support services that typically continue through the length of a prosecution like Wigfall's.
Wigfall's case is one of several violent crime prosecutions working through Berkeley County's court system in recent months. Hoodline previously reported on a Goose Creek father's killer receiving a 45-year sentence in a separate 2023 homicide, while a more recent Moncks Corner shooting case remains in earlier stages of prosecution.
