In the early moments of a Wednesday in May 2016, the life of 20-year-old Isaiah Shinn was tragically cut short in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Just after midnight, on May 18th, Shinn was fatally wounded by a single gunshot while seated in a car on Cherry Laurel Lane. The York County Coroner pronounced him dead at the scene. The incident was not a random act of violence but the grim culmination of a drug deal arranged over social media.
Shinn and two other individuals had arranged to meet Ernest Markevius Thompson to purchase about an ounce of marijuana for approximately $275.
What was meant to be a simple transaction unraveled into a deadly confrontation in the parking lot of the Cherry Laurel Apartments. During the exchange, Thompson fired a. 40-caliber handgun into the car 16 times as it was backing away. While the two other occupants of the vehicle were unharmed, Shinn was struck twice, with one of the bullets fatally piercing his heart. Later that day, police located and arrested 24-year-old Ernest Markevius Thompson of Lancaster and 24-year-old Lauren Nicole Rawlinson of Rock Hill in a nearby apartment, where the firearm believed to have been used was also recovered.
Initially, Thompson was charged with murder, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and two counts of attempted murder for the other two individuals in the car with Shinn. Rawlinson faced a charge of accessory after the fact of murder. In February 2018, the case reached a resolution when Ernest Thompson, then 23, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. He claimed he saw someone in the car reaching for something and acted defensively, stating the drugs had been snatched from his hand. Thompson was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He also received concurrent sentences after pleading guilty to marijuana distribution, selling drugs in proximity to a park, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
