HAMPTON,S.C. (Aug. 14, 2025) – A 27-year-old Hampton man who shot and killed an acquaintance, then dumped his body, has been convicted of murder following a four-day jury trial.
Kyisimm Jerod Williams was found guilty in the shooting death of 31-year-old Michael D. Kirkland, whose mother reported her son missing March 10, 2021. Later that day, investigators found Kirkland’s body off Huggin Oak Plantation Road, a rural area of Hampton County near Varnville. Kirkland had been shot at least 20 times in the neck, torso, and upper body.
Williams was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
“Given the brutality of the killing, there is no doubt that Hampton County and the surrounding communities are safer with this defendant behind bars,” said Reed Evans of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case. “A just verdict has been rendered.”
Kyisimm Williams
Investigating Kirkland’s disappearance, Marty Clapp of the Hampton County Sheriff’s Office discovered his body. He was searching that area because previously a body had been discovered there by the Sheriff’s Office. Clapp is now an investigator for the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
The S.C. State Law Enforcement Division assisted in the investigation. They soon determined that neither the place where Kirkland’s body was found, nor his new home in Early Branch were the shooting location. Various expert witnesses testified that a Dodge Ram pickup known to be driven by the defendant was found riddled with bullet holes and missing its backseat, and that gunshot residue and the victim’s DNA were detected inside.
Circuit Court Judge Marvin Dukes handed down the sentence.
Evans and Assistant Solicitor Julie Kate Keeney, who assisted with the prosecution, called 17 witnesses.
Evans and Keeney are members of the Career Criminal Unit, which prosecutes the circuit’s most violent and habitual offenders. That team has earned convictions against 577 of the 525 defendants it has prosecuted since its formation in 2009.
