WALTERBORO, SC (September 9, 2019) – A 40-year-old Colleton County man has been sent to prison after killing a man in a drug-related incident.
Anterrius Roy Stinson, 40, pleaded guilty Monday in Colleton County General Sessions court to voluntary manslaughter in the November 2017 killing of Gary Dale Hickman.
Stinson was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
“Only in the lawless underworld of drugs do crimes like this make any sense at all,” said Tameaka A. Legette of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case. “If you get involved in this trade, death or prison are the two most likely outcomes for you.
“Stinson and Hickman demonstrate that.”
Stinson was one of three people who drove to Hickman’s property on Jason Lane in Round O on the day he was killed. A woman who was part of the group intended to purchase drugs from Hickman. A second person, who was an acquaintance of the woman, was summoned there by Hickman because he owed him money. That man asked Stinson to accompany him because he feared Hickman might try to harm him.
Upon arrival, Stinson waited in the vehicle while the other two went inside a camper on Hickman’s property. When his two companions did not return to the car, Stinson went to the camper. He was met at the door by Hickman. A struggle ensued, with Hickman and Stinson each armed with their own gun. In the struggle, Stinson’s gun went off, shooting Hickman in the head and killing the 49-year-old man.
Hickman was known to local law enforcement and had a lengthy criminal history. At the time of his death, he faced charges in connection with the attempted armed robbery and slaying of another known drug dealer, Joseph Leeman Jr. Hickman was killed before he could stand trial for an accessory before the fact of a felony charge, but all three of his co-defendants pleaded guilty to various charges related to Leeman’s death.
First-responders at the scene of Hickman’s killing turned him over to find his weapon laying beneath him. It was the gun used to kill Leeman.
Stinson has a lengthy criminal record in both South Carolina and Florida that includes drug possession and distribution convictions.
Circuit Court Judge Thomas W. Cooper issued the sentence.
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 337 of the 351 defendants it has prosecuted since the team was formed in 2008.
