A South Carolina judge ruled Wednesday there is probable cause to charge seven teens in connection with the shooting death of nine-year-old Brody Langley in Chesterfield County. Five of the boys face murder charges under the state’s “hand of one is hand of all” law.
There was raw emotion in court as the group of teens faced the consequences of their alleged actions.
The shooting stemmed from a fist fight.
Channel 9’s Tina Terry talked to attorneys for two of the boys who said the murder charge is not justified.
They said some of the teens thought they were just going to watch a fight, but prosecutors strongly disagreed.
“I think it’s gross overreach to have all of these juveniles charged with murder,” said, Robert L. Newton Jr., a defense attorney.
“It’s also gross that a nine-year old was shot in the face, because these kids were out at 2 a.m., fighting each other,” said, Sara Morris, juvenile solicitor.
That was just part of the debate between prosecutors and a defense attorney representing some of the five kids now charged with murder in the death of Brody Langley.
“It seems like some didn’t know what was going to happen,” the defense attorney said. “At most, they thought there would be a fight between two boys roughly the same age and nobody else was going to get involved.”
Surveillance video shows the car that Brody was in.
His mother and father drove him to a fight at the Blue Sky Mart, east of Pageland, at around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, deputies said.
The boy’s 10-year-old sister, teenage brother, and a teenage friend of the family were also in the car.
The family friend got out and fought another teen who pulled up in this truck.
In court, an investigator said others jumped into the fight and eventually the people in the car tried to leave but a juvenile in the truck pulled out a gun and shot at the car killing Brody.
The family pulled up the road and called for help.
“Stated that a nine-year-old had been shot in the face,” said investigator Brittany Robinson. “They were located on the side of the road. They were trying to get to the hospital.”
“We have ‘hand of one hand of all’ in this state and we have absolutely met our burden of probable cause,” Morris said.
After hearing arguments and testimony, Judge Heath Ruffner agreed there is probable cause for the charges and decided all the teens will remain in juvenile custody.
“I’ve been on bench for three months as of today, and this is the nightmare of what a family court judge faces,” the judge said. “A nine-year-old is dead. Seven juveniles are now in front of me, but I have to set all that aside and I have to apply the law.”
All five of the juveniles who were in that truck are charged with murder, including one who drove and did not get out of the truck.
The two teens who were in the car with Brody are charged with assault and battery by mob resulting in death.
“The hand of one is the hand of all” is a legal slang term In South Carolina that refers to accomplice accountability.
That means if multiple people participate in a crime or criminal plan, each person can be held responsible for the actions of the others even for acts that are unforeseen or unintentional.
Brody’s funeral is at 4 p.m. Thursday at Center Grove Baptist Church Cemetery.
VIDEO: Adults escorted teens to fight that led to fatal shooting of 9-year-old
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