WALTERBORO, S.C. (Nov. 3, 2025) – A Round O man is headed to prison for the fatal shooting of a woman outside a Walterboro motel in 2021.
Charles Anthony Allen, who will turn 30 on Saturday, pleaded guilty Monday in Colleton County General Sessions Court to the murder of 22-year-old Cassady Wiggins. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
“This was a cold-blooded killling,” said Reed Evans of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case. “Thanks to diligent investigative work by Whitlee Fisk and the Walterboro Police Department, along with clear video evidence, we were able to hold the defendant accountable and deliver justice for Ms. Wiggins and her family.”
Wiggins was found shortly before midnight Oct. 8, 2021, slumped across the center console of a running Honda in the parking lot of a Rodeway Inn in Walterboro. A responding Walterboro police officer saw blood on the back of her sweatshirt and no signs of life. Emergency medical personnel later confirmed her death and that she had been shot once in the chest.
Motel surveillance footage showed Wiggins driving from one parking space to another, exiting the vehicle and walking toward Allen, who was sitting on a stairwell. After a brief exchange, Allen raised his arm and fired a shot. Wiggins clutched her chest, staggered back to her car and collapsed. Allen then walked out of frame.
Investigators recovered a single 9mm shell casing on a sidewalk near the motel’s lower level. A bullet fell from Wiggins’ clothing as her body was moved by the coroner and also was collected as evidence. S.C. State Law Enforcement Division analysts determined both the casing and the bullet were fired by a handgun that Allen had in his possession when he was arrested six days after the shooting by U.S. Marshals in a motel in St. George, in nearby Dorchester County.
SLED analysts also discovered Allen’s DNA on the gun, as well as the filter end of a Black & Mild cigar found in the stairwell.
Allen had no previous criminal record.
After his arrest, Allen denied involvement. He later admitted shooting Wiggins, initially claiming self-defense.
“Cassady Wiggins was unarmed and never laid a hand on the defendant,” Evans said, “and surveillance footage of the crime makes that crystal clear. This plea holds him fully responsible.”
Circuit Court Judge Eugene Warr handed down the sentence.
Evans is a member of the Career Criminal Unit, which prosecutes the circuit’s most violent and habitual offenders. That team has earned convictions against 530 of the 583 defendants it has prosecuted since its formation in 2009.
