In the quiet, early morning hours of October 28, 2015, in Bluffton, South Carolina, 33-year-old Johnathan Cherol, a well-liked local restaurateur, was enjoying a late-night drink with a friend on the back porch of his home. Suddenly, the calm was shattered by the sound of two gunshots. One of the shots struck Cherol in the head, killing him instantly as he sat on his sofa.
His friend, stunned by the horrific event, immediately called 911, reporting that his friend had been shot and killed right in front of him.
When law enforcement arrived at the Pinecrest Way home, they found Cherol deceased from a single gunshot wound. Investigators discovered two shotgun shells on the grass nearby, indicating the shooter's position. The initial investigation was extensive, involving the Bluffton Police Department, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, who together executed 25 search warrants and interviewed numerous individuals. From the outset, police believed the killing was a targeted attack and not a random act of violence.
The investigation quickly zeroed in on a married couple from Bluffton, Samuel 'Sam' Collins, then 38, and his wife Colette, 34. A crucial piece of evidence came from a neighbor's surveillance camera, which captured a dark-colored sedan, later identified as Colette Collins' car, at Cherol's house about an hour before the murder and then driving by slowly around the time of the shooting. The footage also showed Colette at Cherol's door earlier that evening. The motive for the killing appeared to be jealousy. Sam Collins reportedly became enraged after Colette returned home late and intoxicated, admitting she had been at Cherol's house. Suspecting his wife was having an affair, Sam Collins retrieved a 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun he had borrowed from a friend and demanded that Colette drive him to Cherol's home.
Colette Collins drove her husband to the neighborhood, where he got out of the car, crept into Cherol's backyard, and fired the two shots from the darkness. After the shooting, he returned to the vehicle, telling his wife, 'I shot him, let's go,' and she drove them away from the scene. They disposed of the shotgun at a friend's house before returning home. Investigators linked Sam Collins to the murder through overwhelming forensic evidence. His DNA was found on the shotgun, which was recovered by police, and shotgun shells found at the crime scene were matched to the weapon. Text messages and interviews further solidified the case against the couple.
About a month after the murder, Sam and Colette Collins were arrested and charged. In October 2017, following a two-day trial where the jury deliberated for about an hour, Samuel Collins was found guilty of murder and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison. In a separate trial in January 2018, where her husband testified against her, Colette Collins was convicted of accessory after the fact to murder. She received the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
