Paul Harts, a 19-year-old male known professionally as the rapper 18veno, was shot and killed on January 23, 2021, in York County, South Carolina, just outside the Rock Hill city limits. The fatal encounter unfolded on McShea Drive during what was intended to be a marijuana deal. Harts, a rising artist from Winnsboro with a growing online following, had arranged to sell marijuana to Christopher LaMont McCollough of Rock Hill.
Harts was in the driver's seat of a car, accompanied by his lifelong friend, Khalil Lahenra Robinson, in the passenger seat, while McCollough was in the back.
The transaction quickly devolved into a violent struggle inside the vehicle. Prosecutors would later argue that McCollough, then 22, was attempting to rob Harts and Robinson. During the ensuing chaos, at least three guns were present, and multiple shots were fired. Harts was struck by two separate bullets from two different guns. After the shooting, Robinson drove Harts to Piedmont Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. McCollough was also shot in the arm during the incident.
The investigation led York County Sheriff's detectives to two suspects. Khalil Robinson, then 20, was taken into custody on February 4, 2021, and initially charged with voluntary manslaughter. The following day, Christopher McCollough was arrested and faced more severe charges, including murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. McCollough initially lied to investigators, claiming he had been wounded in an entirely different incident in another city to conceal his involvement in the drug deal and shooting.
During McCollough's murder trial in February 2022, the courtroom heard conflicting narratives of the fatal drug deal. The prosecution maintained that McCollough set the tragic events in motion by trying to rob Harts. The defense contended that Harts and Robinson were the aggressors who attempted to rob McCollough, and that McCollough acted in self-defense. A key witness for the prosecution was Khalil Robinson, who testified against McCollough. Robinson admitted that during the struggle, he fired a shot that accidentally struck his best friend, Harts, in the head. An autopsy confirmed Harts sustained wounds from two different caliber guns.
After a four-day trial and hours of deliberation, the jury found Christopher LaMont McCollough not guilty of murder, but convicted him of the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. For his cooperation and testimony, Khalil Robinson later pleaded guilty to possession of a gun by a person convicted of a violent crime. Acknowledging that Robinson was also a victim in the shootout and that his primary motivation was to get justice for his friend, the court sentenced him to two years in prison, followed by two years of probation.
