In the quiet early morning hours of April 6, 2021, in Columbia, South Carolina, a grandfather was tragically killed in a senseless act of violence. Charlie Sonny Jackson Jr., a 62-year-old male, was asleep in his bed when gunfire erupted outside his home on Lucille Drive. The bullets pierced through the walls of his house, striking and killing him as he slept. His family remembers him as a lovable, soft-spoken man, the glue that held their family together.
Jackson was a retiree from Overheads Doors of Columbia, where he had worked for over 35 years. He was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed cooking, hunting, and fishing, and he especially cherished teaching these skills to his grandchildren.
The investigation into the shooting revealed that the intended targets were not Charlie Jackson Jr. or his family. The violence stemmed from a dispute involving Troy Stevenson and the boyfriend of Jackson's daughter. In an act of misguided revenge, Stevenson traveled to what he believed was the daughter's residence and opened fire on the house. Ring camera footage and shot-spotter technology pinpointed the time of the drive-by shooting to 2:48 a.m. This evidence became crucial in the case against Stevenson.
Following an investigation, Troy Stevenson was arrested and charged with the murder of Charlie Jackson Jr. During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Stevenson had received the address on his phone just minutes before the shooting. The jury convicted Stevenson for the murder. In May 2024, a Richland County judge sentenced Troy Stevenson to life in prison without the possibility of parole. During the sentencing, the judge condemned the act as a total disregard for human life.
This was not Stevenson's first time on trial for murder. He had previously been charged in the 2013 killing of a Midlands mother, Kelly Hunnewell. That case ended in a mistrial, and he was later acquitted in a subsequent trial. However, in the case of Charlie Jackson Jr.'s death, the jury found him guilty, and he was transferred to the custody of the State Department of Corrections to serve his life sentence. The family of Charlie Jackson Jr., though still grieving their loss, expressed that they felt the judge had delivered a just sentence.
