Secret tapes sink shooter's defense in Scott Spivey road rage killing

A South Carolina justice has ruled that Charles Weldon Boyd cannot assertion self-defense extortion nether the state’s "Stand Your Ground" instrumentality successful the 2023 shooting decease of Scott Spivey.

After a proceeding that spanned 4 days, Circuit Court Judge Eugene Griffith ruled that Boyd's secretly recorded telephone calls with a Horry County constabulary authoritative showed helium was seeking instrumentality enforcement assistance and trying to debar responsibility.

"Credibility's immense here," Griffith said, according to the Post and Courier. "I truly question the credibility of Weldon Boyd. I find his grounds lacking credibility successful galore places."

The ruling means Boyd tin present look the family’s wrongful decease suit successful court.

Scott Spivey was killed connected Sept. 9, 2023, during a road-rage incidental that happened connected Camp Swamp Road successful the Loris country of Horry County, South Carolina. (Obtained by Fox News)

The determination stems from the Sept. 9, 2023, shooting of the 33-year-old North Carolina security adjuster. Authorities said the confrontation began on Highway 9 successful Horry County and escalated onto Camp Swamp Road, wherever Spivey was changeable and killed.

Boyd and a 2nd defendant, Kenneth "Bradley" Williams, person maintained they acted successful self-defense, telling investigators that Spivey drove erratically and posed a deadly threat.

Under South Carolina’s "Stand Your Ground" law, individuals whitethorn usage deadly unit if they reasonably judge they are successful imminent information of decease oregon superior bodily injury. The instrumentality besides allows defendants to question immunity from some transgression prosecution and civilian lawsuits.

Judge Eugene Griffith discusses charging the assemblage during the sentencing signifier of a proceedings successful Lexington. (Tracy Glantz/The State/Pool via USA Today Network)

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Local prosecutors antecedently declined to record transgression charges aft determining the shooting fell wrong the scope of the state's self-defense law.

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Spivey’s household aboriginal filed a wrongful-death lawsuit, arguing Boyd and Williams escalated the brushwood and were not entitled to immunity.

During the caller proceeding connected Feb. 20, attorneys presented witnesser testimony, 911 recordings and different grounds arsenic the justice considered whether the men qualified for ineligible protection.

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In denying Boyd’s immunity claim, Griffith said the defendant’s relationship was inconsistent with the carnal grounds and different testimony.

While the justice has ruled that Boyd tin present look the family's civilian lawsuit, a abstracted determination regarding Williams' immunity is pending.

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Outside the Horry County courthouse connected Feb. 20, according to the Post and Courier, the Spivey family's lawyer criticized however authorities handled the archetypal investigation.

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"It's said with large powerfulness comes large responsibility, and that ain't saying nary and digging successful and not looking due to the fact that of arrogance, pridefulness and governmental motivation," Mark Tinsley said successful a property conference.

"I subpoenaed the Attorney General's Office to spot what they had. And I'll archer you, this heap of worldly successful beforehand maine is simply a fraction of what they had, and they did not look astatine it. This is truthful patently wide from the connection go. This is not 'stand your ground.' This a travesty that we are present close now."

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