Cheyenne Taylor

State v. King
2015 WL 1913949 (2015 S.C. App.)

History
 On November 26, 2010 at a little after 4am, a customer called Yellow Cab
requesting to be picked up at 1808 Carlton Street in North Charleston.
 Dario Brown was dispatched at 4:11am to the location since he had prior
experience and affiliation with that area.
 The customer came from Brown’s aunt’s abandoned house and Brown confronted
him about it which led to an argument.
 As Brown made his way to the dead end of the street to turn around the passenger
cocked his pistol and placed it on the back of Brown’s head and demanded
money.
 The man told Brown that what he gave him was not enough and continued to
point the gun at Brown’s head.
 Brown tried to move the gun away from his head and opened the door to the cab
and had one foot on the ground and his other on the brake.
 Brown put his hands over his heads and looked back at the guy who looked like
he was going to shoot him, and Brown tried again to move the gun at which point
he was shot in the arm.
 Brown jumped from the cab and King followed close behind him to a fence that
Brown tried to jump but ended up toppling over because his arm gave out and he
landed on his back.
 King shot at Brown again and Brown ran behind a van with King still shooting.
 King stayed outside the gate and stated that he would stop shooting if Brown gave
him more money.
 Brown called the police and Officer Jennifer Butler arrived at 4:21am and saw
Brown’s cab that had run into a pole.
 She then made contact with Brown and contacted medical services.
 Butler and a detective walked door-to-door and learned that there were at least 3
or 4 shots fired and not one like King testified.
 Kelly Murphy, a crime scene technician, found one .25 auto shell casing in the
cab but no other casings.
Issue
 The question that was posed in this case was if he intended to kill.
Rule
 The rule that was used in this case was the section 16-3-29 of the South Carolina
Code (Supp. 2014) which defines attempted murder as “a person who, with intent
 Cheyenne Taylor

to kill, attempts to kill another person with malice aforethought, either expressed
or implied, commits the offense of attempted murder.”
Analysis
 The biggest issue with the language of the statute is the definition of each part of
the statute such as intent.
Conclusion
 Rakeem D. King was convicted in Circuit Court, Charleston County of attempted
murder, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a
violent crime.
 King appealed his conviction.
 The SC Court of Appeals reversed his appeal.