By admin 
A South Carolina judge has given pretrial release to a Rock Hill boy facing a murder charge and who was 13 years old at the time of a 2025 killing at a Fort Mill park between Rock Hill and Charlotte.
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His release comes even as prosecutors will seek an adult trial against the boy, now 14, in the killing of Johnny Wayne Martin Cook during a robbery.
Co-defendant Jalen Daquavious Thames, 18 years old at the time of the August 2025 killing, died Sept. 2 of natural causes after he had been jailed for a year on murder and other charges, prosecutor Erin Joyner said at a hearing Tuesday in York County Family Court.
Thames cannot be prosecuted because he is now deceased.
The younger boy has been in a juvenile facility for a year since the robbery and shooting where police and prosecutors say the two suspects were going to steal a gun from Cook. Police and prosecutors say Cook, 21, from Chester, allegedly had sold them marijuana earlier in the day before the robbery plot and killing unfolded.
The 2025 killing was the first homicide in years in suburban Fort Mill, one of the fastest-growing communities in South Carolina and the country.
Judge David Guyton ruled Tuesday the boy could stay with family under house arrest and GPS monitoring. Yet Guyton plainly told the boy that if he violated any pretrial release conditions “on these very serious charges” that include any contact with any potential witnesses, “you will be back in detention.”
Guyton asked him if he understood.
The boy said “Yes sir.”
He also faces charges of armed robbery, conspiracy and weapons.
The Herald, which was the only media organization at Tuesday’s hearing, is not identifying the accused younger boy because of his age.
Defense: Older suspect, now deceased, only witness against the younger boy
The boy’s lawyer, 16th Circuit Deputy Public Defender Melissa Inzerillo, argued that the Thames, the older teen who died, lied when he claimed to police the younger boy shot Cook. Thames had a gun the day of the killing and also made social media videos of himself firing the victim’s gun afterward and before he was arrested, Inzerillo said.
She said the lies “became more fantastical” once Thames was arrested and he blamed the younger boy for the killing.
In previous hearings covered by The Herald, prosecutors said Thames’ palm print was found on the car window from the direction where the fatal shots were fired.
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She said Thames is the only witness who puts the blame for the killing on the boy, so. his death “further weakens the state’s case” against the younger boy, Inzerillo said.
She said he will abide by pretrial release rules.
Prosecutor and victim’s father: Boy is a danger to the public
Joyner conceded the death of Thames is a “huge chance in circumstance” in the case, but argued the younger boy remains a danger to the public if released. She cited his disciplinary record before the killing and while in jail since, as well as the violence involved in the killing where Cook was shot several times while in his car at a public park.
Surveillance video from a nearby store shows Cook and the two suspects together just minutes before the killing, Joyner argued.
Johnny Cook, the victim’s father, told the judge his son was killed and the boy charged should stay jailed until the case is resolved.
“My son probably was scared when he got shot seven times,” Cook said. “My son is no longer here…There’s no reason for him (the defendant) to go home; he’s a danger to society, I don’t care what nobody says.”
What happens next: Adult trial or juvenile trial?
Joyner said prosecutors plan to hold hearings later this year where they will ask a Family Court Judge to move the young boy up to adult court. A Family Court Judge must rule after hearing evidence that the younger boy face adult court before there can be an adult trial.
Inzerillo has said in previous court hearings she will fight any attempt to make the boy face an adult trial.
Consequences for convictions for murder and the other felonies the boy could face are far more severe in adult court. A conviction for murder as an adult carries a mandatory minimum of 30 years. In juvenile court, a sentence for any convictions including murder ends at age 22.
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