South Carolina jury acquits ex-gas station owner of murder for shooting and killing teenager
The man's son testified 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton pointed a gun at him. Prosecutors said he had a loaded 9 mm but never displayed it before he was shot.
A jury in Columbia, South Carolina, on Monday acquitted a former gas station owner of murder for fatally shooting a teenage boy he chased after falsely accusing him of shoplifting bottled water.
Jurors deliberated about eight hours before declaring Chikei Rick Chow, 61, not guilty of murder for the May 28, 2023, shooting death of 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton.
Judge Heath Taylor’s clerk published the verdict about 8:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Chow’s son, Andy Chow, testified his father shot Cyrus after Cyrus pointed a gun at him. Prosecutors say the boy had a loaded 9 mm gun but never displayed it before he was shot.
Chow’s lawyer Shaun Kent said in his closing argument that prosecutors didn’t believe their own case.
The state “put witnesses on the stand: ‘Guns aren’t that bad. 14-year-old kids have guns all the time.’ And they had witnesses literally with their hands on the Bible, looking at you, talking about ‘guns are prevalent; it’s not that big of a deal,’” Kent said.
“That was the testimony. I didn’t make that up. That was the testimony that they submitted. Do I think they believe any part of that? Not a line of that,” Kent said.
Jurors deliberated about eight hours before declaring Chow not guilty of murder. They did not have lesser included charges to consider such as manslaughter.
His mother, father and other friends and family wept in the courtroom as the clerk polled the jury.
Chow’s lawyer Jack B. Swerling told reporters Chow was “defending his son. He was not trying to hurt the young man.”
“I feel sorry for the family. As I said during my opening statement, my heart goes out to them, but 14-year-old kids should not be roaming the streets of Columbia or South Carolina with semi-automatic pistols loaded and ready to fire.” Swerling said.
“We’re not celebrating the fact that this young man got killed. We just think that the jury sliced it the right way with Andy Chow coming out of store, thinking and having a reasonable suspicion that he may have taken something, leaving the store and going to follow him, and the father going after his son to make sure his son is okay,” he continued.
“What would you say to the Carmack family if you could say anything to them now?” a reporter asked.
“My heart goes out to them. I know I can’t imagine what they’re going through, or what they have been through, losing a son. I can’t. As a parent myself, I cannot imagine any pain … more difficult than that. So I feel for them, I really do, because they didn’t do anything. They didn’t. They didn’t bring on the suffering themselves.”
“This was something that their son put them into, and you know, young people need to learn. You can’t walk around the city carrying semi automatic weapons loaded. Look, what happened if he didn’t have a gun? This would not have happened,” Swerling said.
A laweyr for Cyrus’ family told reporters on Monday night that the question of why the 14-year-old had a gun “was answered when he was shot dead in the streets 130 yards from a store where he did absolutely nothing wrong.”
“The question was answered when this jury found him not guilty today. The question was answered because a child, a 14-year-old child, shot dead in Richland County, got no justice. When the family got no justice," said attorney Todd Rutherford, standing beside Cyrus’ father, Troy Belton, in a video from WIS-TV in Columbia.
“The anger is palpable tonight. You can feel it. You can touch it, because people saw a child that looked like their own. That did nothing wrong. A child that all the witnesses described had fear in his eyes when he left the store. And then he started to run as two grown men chased him down over a football field and shot him dead. This should not happen,” Rutherford said.
Prosecutor Dale Scott played video of Cyrus walking out of the store and the defendant, his wife and his son chasing after him.
“This could have been it. He could have walked off,” Scott said during his 50-minute closing argument.
“Let him go. Just let him go. We don’t need to be here today. Let the boy go. What have you got to lose? Why not call 911. It takes one second,” said Scott, a senior assistant solicitor in South Carolina’s 5th Judicial Circuit.
Andy, 23, testified he only wanted to see where Cyrus was going so he could tell police, but the boy tripped and then pointed a gun at him and his father fired a shot to protect him. Other witnesses testified Cyrus never displayed the gun before he was shot.
“He chose to chase down an eighth grader. The boy was so terrified that he ran out of his shoe and continued running. The boy was so terrified he’s losing clothing. He drops his phone. He drops his mother’s phone, but he continues running. Wouldn’t that have been even another great opportunity for them to stop?” Scott told the jury.
Kent said Chow and his son followed Cyrus out of the store because they believe he’d stolen bottled water and “it’s their property.”
“They’re emotional about it, and that’s why he ran after it. The question isn’t, ‘Do you think it’s right?’ The question is, ‘Is it legal?'“ Kent said.
Kent said Scott questioned Andy Chow and “got right in his face ... and he was saying everything to him, but the one thing he didn't say to him is, ‘You have been charged with following this young man out of the store, and you are criminally liable for following this young man out of the store.’”
“Because he’s not. He’s not liable. He’s not criminally liable. He has not been charged, and he did not do anything wrong,” Kent said.
Prosecutors “don’t have evidence to offer, but they have fear, passion, emotion, and they want to get that out of you,” he said.
“They want that fear, passion, and emotion, and for you to ignore the law. We do not get to take the law the way that we want it to be. We take the law the way that it is. Let me tell you that again, we don’t get to take the way that we want it to be,” Kent said.
“The solicitor can’t say, ‘Well, I want it to be illegal for a shopkeeper to go out of the store. Shopkeepers should not be able to follow somebody. That’s what I want. Andy, that’s what I want!’”
“That’s not the law,” Kent said.
Jurors earlier in the evening indicated they wanted to go home, but Judge Taylor told attorneys he’s concerned the huge amount of media attention could influence them, so he brought the jury into the courtroom and told them they can’t go home.
“Typically once the deliberative process begins, we ask you to stay here as long as possible. Certainly, we’re not going to do anything inhumane, but I’m going to ask you to keep deliberating,” the judge told them.
A court employee “is going to get with you shortly with regard to orders for dinner, and we’re just going to ask you to keep working.”
“I understand it’s been a long day. It’s been a long day for everybody, and I know y’all are diligently working, and I appreciate that, but we’re going to ask you just to keep working, and we’ll get your dinner orders,” Judge Taylor said.
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