In the small town of Varnville, South Carolina, the life of 19-year-old Lamekia Mo'Asia Warren was cut tragically short on Sunday, March 25, 2018. A recent graduate of Wade Hampton High School, Lamekia was known for her contagious and radiant smile, a young woman with a kind and sweet inner spirit who enjoyed doing hair and was known for 'slaying those braids.'
Her sudden death was a profound shock to her family and all who knew her.
The grim discovery was made inside a home on Priscilla Lane, where Lamekia was found alongside two other victims, 24-year-old Ghazi Abdul Duckett and 32-year-old Frankie Lee Johnson, Jr. The scene was one of extreme brutality. Both Duckett and Johnson had been shot in the head. Lamekia had sustained more than 30 gunshot wounds to her neck, chest, legs, and arms, a testament to the horrific violence of the act.
The investigation into the triple homicide led law enforcement to two local men, Tyrase Akil Collins and Lorenzo Boles. Subsequent searches of Collins' home on Crews Street uncovered at least three firearms connected to the murders. Among them was a Draco-style semi-automatic pistol that belonged to Johnson, found in Collins' bedroom. Another gun was ballistically linked to shell casings found at the crime scene, and a third firearm, associated with Duckett, was also recovered. Further evidence emerged when Johnson's blood was discovered inside a red Dodge Charger that Boles regularly drove.
In November 2023, a Hampton County General Sessions jury convicted Tyrase Akil Collins, then 23, of three counts of murder, armed robbery, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. His co-defendant, 39-year-old Lorenzo Boles, was found guilty of one charge of accessory before the fact to each of the three murders and armed robbery. Boles was subsequently sentenced to 45 years in prison. In July 2024, Tyrase Akil Collins, who was 17 at the time of the killings, received three consecutive life sentences for the murders, an additional 30 years for armed robbery, and five years for the weapon possession charge, ensuring he would spend the rest of his life in prison for his role in the brutal slayings.
