In a quiet corner of Wagener, South Carolina, the life of 53-year-old Timothy Davenport was abruptly cut short on the evening of May 7, 2024. Deputies responded to a call of a shooting in the 200 block of Jeffcoat Road around 7:30 p.m. and found Davenport with a gunshot wound to his head. He was rushed to Lexington Medical Center, but tragically succumbed to his injuries.
Witnesses at the scene described seeing a man flee the residence just before law enforcement arrived.
This sparked a manhunt for the suspected shooter. The search for the individual, later identified as 22-year-old Jonathan Daquan Staley, continued for several hours. Thanks to tips from concerned citizens who spotted Staley walking along Highway 302, deputies were able to locate and apprehend him without incident around 11:15 p.m., approximately three miles from the scene of the shooting.
Following his arrest, Staley was taken to the Aiken County Detention Center. He was subsequently charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. In October 2025, Jonathan Daquan Staley was convicted of the murder of Timothy Davenport. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison for his role in the fatal shooting. While justice was served in a legal sense, the motive behind the tragic shooting was not publicly released. An autopsy was scheduled to be performed in Newberry to officially determine the cause of death.
