This week police arrested 18-year-old Courtier McKinnon, 23-year-old Johnny Tyson Jr and 18-year-old DAndre Travon Ford for a shooting at a Dillon convenience store.
Authorities charged the three with attempted murder. All three remain in jail.
However, the men’s families believe they had nothing to do with the shooting.
“I was devastated. I wanted to know why. And he didn’t even know. When he called he didn’t even know why he was arrested at the time,” mentioned Antonia Manning, McKinnon’s aunt.
The shooting that happened at the Food Mart in Dillon which left a customer shot twice.
“He was just with the two guys…and they were asked to give the other guy a ride across town at his mom’s house. Didn’t have a clue what was going on,” Manning explained.
The families say that their questions lie in the courtroom.
“To me the judge felt like they were guilty,” she added.
At Tuesday’s bond hearing, the families claim Judge James Rogers failed to read the men their rights to trial and adjusted bail amounts from the original amount of $25,000 dollars.
“I was called out by an investigator that I was told it might be $100,000,” Manning stated.
They say it was later changed to $125,000.
News13 wanted to see if those claims were true. However, we found out bond hearings are not in any way recorded in Dillon’s municipal courts.
According to South Carolina’s Court Administration office, a complaint was filed back in 2010 against Judge Rogers concerning a bond hearing for Audra Antonio Manning.
He was also charged with attempted murder.
Among the list of complaints was that Manning was released on a $10,000 surety bond on a statute that could carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
The complaint mentioned that there was a concern for safety of the Little Rock community.
In response, court administration said there is no set schedule of bond amounts.
However, a judge can use several criteria in the South Carolina code to determine bond including a person’s prior criminal record, whether they’re a flight risk and if they appear in the state’s gang database.
Both Ford and McKinnon are seniors at Dillon High School and according to both families, McKinnon served 90 days in a juvenile detention center in 2014 while Ford has no previous record.
However, Tyson was arrested back 2013 by the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department in North Carolina on a misdemeanor for failure to appear.
As for the young men’s families, they hope for a much different outcome.
“We holding it together. I’m hoping that these three innocent boys be set free and they actually get the one that did it,” Manning said.
News13 did speak with Judge Rogers; however, he chose not to comment on the situation.
Dillon police still search for Delawn LeKeith Moore.