BEAUFORT, S.C. (Oct. 12, 2022) – A 22-year-old St. Helena Island man has been convicted of killing an unarmed man in a fusillade of 9mm handgun fire.
A Beaufort County General Sessions Court jury of six men and six women found Channon Talon Preston guilty Wednesday of the murder of Steven Glover of St. Helena Island. Preston also was convicted of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during commission of a violent crime. The offenses took place in November 2020.
Preston was sentenced to 37 years in prison.
Mary Jones of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office prosecuted the case. She called 20 witnesses during three days of testimony at the Beaufort County Courthouse, including two analysts from the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division and 13 officers and analysts from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
At about 1 p.m. on Nov. 18, 2020, Glover was gunned down near his vehicle, which was parked in the front yard of his friend, Corey Deion Singleton. Glover was unarmed. Singleton, who walked from his porch into his front yard just as the attack began, took cover behind Glover’s car, then fled to the house of a neighbor, who called 9-1-1.
Glover was shot seven times, and his car was struck by more than 30 bullets.
Circuit Court Judge Bentley Price handed down the sentence.
Xavier Maoshi Polite, 28, of Port Royal also faces charges in relation to Glover’s death. His trial has not been scheduled. Polite is innocent of the charges until proven guilty in court.
Jones is a member of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office Career Criminal Unit, which prosecutes the circuit’s most violent and habitual offenders. The team has earned convictions against 423 of the 456 defendants it has prosecuted since its formation in late 2009.
