WALTERBORO, SC (Jan. 31, 2025) A 41-year-old Walterboro man who opened fired inside a crowded pool hall and fled in a stolen vehicle has been found guilty of murder and other charges.
Shannon Lamont Kinard of Crystal Lane was found guilty Friday in the July 30, 2022, shooting death of 23-year-old Dexter Diondre Lynah Jr. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
The two were at Sure Shots pool hall and bar on Sniders Highway when Kinard started an argument with other patrons. After retrieving a gun from his vehicle, he opened fire inside the pool hall, striking Lynah.
“The defendant used deadly violence in a brazen manner with no regard to anyone’s safety and then stalked the victim like prey before shooting him in the back,” said Tameaka A. Legette of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case. “A just and appropriate conviction and sentence were given today. Colleton County is safer with this person behind bars.”
In a surveillance video, Kinard is seen leaving the pool hall and coming back in. A short while later, an argument erupts between Kinard and another patron. Security personnel stop the fight, but Kinard draws a gun and begins shooting.
The video shows an injured Lynah scrambling out of a backdoor with Kinard firing his gun and following Lynah to an outside courtyard. Lynah, with a broken femur, stumbles and falls on the ground, raising his hand in total surrender. With a gun already drawn, Kinard stands over him and pulls the trigger, shooting him again.
Kinard then attempted to leave the pool hall, but when he realized he had dropped his car keys, he jumped into a different vehicle and drove off.
Lynah died several hours later at a nearby hospital from his injuries. He had been shot four times, a forensic pathologist testified. The pathologist was one of 19 witnesses called by the state during the four-day jury trial.
An investigator with the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office testified that a police K9 helped find the gun near a fence line outside the pool hall.
A Colleton County General Sessions jury also found Kinard guilty of using a vehicle without permission with the intent to deprive, as well as possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He received five years for the gun charge and three years for stealing the vehicle. All sentences are to be served concurrently.
Circuit Court Judge Robert Bonds handed down Friday’s sentence.
Kinard’s criminal history includes convictions from South Carolina and Georgia and dates to 2002. His offenses include possession of crack cocaine; criminal domestic violence, first offense (2004); and child abuse/cruelty towards a child (2016) from Georgia.
Legette is a member of the Solicitor’s Office Career Criminal Unit, which prosecutes the circuit’s most violent and habitual offenders. That team has earned convictions against 558 of the 507 defendants it has prosecuted since its inception in late 2009.
