In the late evening of August 31, 2021, the quiet of Padgett Street in the Utica Mill Hill community near Seneca, South Carolina, was shattered by a disturbance that would end in tragedy. When deputies from the Oconee County Sheriff's Office arrived at the scene, they discovered 62-year-old Richard Dennis Keese lying in the roadway, suffering from a gunshot wound.
Despite the immediate life-saving efforts of the deputies, a Seneca Police Department officer, and paramedics, Keese succumbed to his injuries at the scene.
The investigation into the death of Richard Dennis Keese, a Pendleton resident known to his friends as 'Bulldog,' quickly focused on two individuals. The Oconee County Sheriff's Office identified 27-year-old Braxton Earl and 20-year-old Stanley Eugene Earl, Jr., both of Pendleton, as suspects in the shooting. Braxton Earl was arrested and charged with murder. Not long after, Stanley Eugene Earl, Jr. was also taken into custody and faced charges of murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Both men were booked into the Oconee County Detention Center and were initially denied bond.
The legal proceedings that followed painted a clearer picture of the events that led to Keese's death. While the specific motive was alluded to as stemming from ill feelings related to another death in Anderson County, the core of the case rested on the violent encounter on Padgett Street. The investigation continued, with law enforcement piecing together the evidence that implicated the Earls in the fatal shooting. Both men remained in custody as they awaited trial for the murder of Richard Keese.
Ultimately, the case against Braxton Earl concluded with a plea agreement. Originally facing a murder charge, Earl pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. In March 2025, a judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison, with the sentence suspended to 13 years, to be followed by five years of probation. Earl was given credit for the 1,275 days he had already served in jail since his arrest. During the sentencing, with members of Keese's family present, Braxton Earl offered an apology for his actions. Richard Keese's mother, Elizabeth Keese, spoke of the profound loss of her son, who had been her support and a helper on the family farm.
