In the early morning hours of Mother's Day, May 10, 2015, Kedena Brown, a 36-year-old mother of three, was tragically killed in a case of mistaken identity in North Charleston, South Carolina. Brown had been visiting family and was on her way home to Goose Creek, driving her Chrysler 300. Unbeknownst to her, a group of individuals in a black Honda CRV were pursuing another Chrysler 300, believing its occupants had shot at them earlier.
The occupants of the Honda CRV—Richard Simmons,
Kenneth Lamont Robinson Jr., and Keon Marquell Cortez Anderson—had been engaged in a high-speed chase. After losing the vehicle they were chasing, they came across Brown's nearly identical car. Despite Robinson and Anderson's warnings that it was the wrong car and that a woman was inside, Simmons opened fire on Brown's vehicle as she was driving on Ashley Phosphate Road near the Northwoods Mall. Brown was struck twice, in the neck and head, and died from her injuries.
The investigation that followed led to the arrest of all three individuals in the Honda CRV. Initially, Simmons falsely claimed that Robinson was the shooter, which led to Robinson, who was 15 at the time, being tried as an adult. Later, Simmons confessed to being the gunman. Despite this admission, a judge denied a request to move Robinson's case back to family court.
In February 2018, a jury found Kenneth Lamont Robinson Jr. guilty of murder under South Carolina's 'hand of one, hand of all' accomplice liability law. He was later sentenced to 50 years in prison. Richard Simmons, the admitted shooter, accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Keon Anderson pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and received a 15-year prison sentence. An appeal was filed on behalf of Robinson in June 2020. Evidence presented during the legal proceedings included GPS data from an ankle monitor Robinson was wearing at the time, which placed him at the scene of the murder.
