On a summer night in South Carolina, the life of 40-year-old Charles Allen Judge Jr. was tragically cut short. The male victim, a Staff Sergeant in the South Carolina National Guard, was killed on July 24, 2016, outside the Frayed Knot Bar & Grill on Dreher Island Road near Chapin. That evening, he and a friend, Sergeant First Class Jonathan Michael Prins, witnessed a man assaulting a woman in the parking lot and heroically intervened in an attempt to de-escalate the volatile situation.
The assailant, identified as 25-year-old Joseph Elijah Mills, had been involved in a physical altercation with the woman. After being separated from her, he produced a handgun and fired shots into the air. Judge and Prins, who had been on a boat docked nearby, heard the gunfire and ran to help, hoping to peacefully resolve the conflict. As they approached with their hands up, trying to talk to him, Mills shot both men in cold blood. Judge was struck twice in the torso and died while being transported to the hospital. Prins was also fatally wounded at the scene.
Following the shooting, Joseph Elijah Mills fled but was apprehended by law enforcement later that same day. He was subsequently charged with two counts of murder for the deaths of Charles Allen Judge Jr. and Jonathan Michael Prins. At a hearing the day after the incident, Mills was denied bond. In May 2018, he pleaded guilty to the murders. Following his plea, Joseph Elijah Mills was sentenced to 40 years in prison without the possibility of parole, a sentence that must be served in its entirety.
