HAMPTON, SC (March 15, 2017) – A Walterboro man has been convicted of the 2015 shooting and killing of a Hampton apartment complex building manager.
Sidney Antoine Holmes, 26, of Walterboro was sentenced Wednesday, March 15, 2017, to 51 years in prison in the shooting death of 51-year-old Steven Douglas Cochran.
Following a two-day trial at the Hampton County Courthouse, a jury found Holmes guilty of four crimes: murder, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, discharging a firearm into a dwelling and unlawful possession of a weapon. He received 40 years for murder; five years for possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime; five years for shooting into a dwelling and one year for unlawful possession of a weapon. The sentences are to run consecutively.
“This was a brazen murder committed in front of a group of people,” said Randolph Murdaugh, III, special assistant solicitor assigned to the Career Criminal Prosecution Team. “Not only did people witness the defendant shoot Mr. Cochran multiple times, a Hampton police officer heard the incident while on the phone with the victim. The defendant in this case has a total and utter disregard for anything or anyone.”
On Aug. 1, 2015, Cochran, who was the building manager for the Hampton Garden Apartments on Holly Street West, called Hampton police after telling a group of men who were loitering at the apartment complex to leave the property. During the call, Cochran began to scream for help. A bystander picked up the phone and told the officer that a man ran up to Cochran and shot him.
Murdaugh’s son, R. Alexander Murdaugh, assisted during the trial.
Circuit Court Judge Perry Buckner handed down the sentence.
