In the quiet, early morning hours of a January day in 2019, the life of 23-year-old Brandon Thomas Jones Wilson was tragically cut short in Great Falls, South Carolina. He was a young man known as a talented musician and artist, a graduate of Great Falls High School who was a father to a son and a daughter. His death would leave a void in the lives of his family and friends, sparking a search for justice.
On that fateful Thursday, January 24, 2019, events unfolded on Richburg Road that
would end in violence. According to a witness who had driven Brandon to the location, Stephen A. Collins, a 25-year-old from Great Falls, emerged from a house and opened fire into the vehicle. While the driver managed to escape the immediate gunfire, he witnessed Brandon collapse to the ground outside the car. When Chester County Sheriff's deputies arrived at the scene around 1:10 a.m., they found Brandon on the ground next to a vehicle with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. An officer performed CPR until paramedics arrived, but his life could not be saved.
At the scene, Stephen Collins approached the deputies, claiming that he had been attacked. However, based on witness testimony and other evidence, including video recordings, investigators arrested Collins. He was charged with murder in the death of Brandon, as well as attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. Collins was subsequently booked into the Chester County jail and held without bond.
The legal proceedings that followed brought a resolution to the case more than two years later. In May 2021, Stephen Andrew Collins, then 27, appeared in court and pleaded guilty to the charge of voluntary manslaughter. After accepting his plea, a judge sentenced him to 24 years in prison for the killing of Brandon Thomas Jones Wilson, bringing a close to a painful chapter for all involved.
