Parents claim SC liquor store sold alcohol to teen with fake ID. He later died in crash
The mother and father of a Loris teen killed in a crash is blaming the liquor store that allegedly sold him the alcohol for his death.
Samuel Neil Prince and Tiffany Prince filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Hot Shot Liquors and its employee, Veronica Thea Grainger, on behalf of their son, Jonah Eli Prince.
A message left on a number listed for Hot Shot Liquors was not immediately returned.
Prince, who was 19 at the time, died after his vehicle overturned and caught fire on S.C. 905, according to a South Carolina Highway Patrol report.
The employee at the store located at 1379 Red Bluff Road in Loris sold alcohol to Prince on Sept. 2, 2022, although he was under the age of 21, the legal age to purchase alcohol in South Carolina, the lawsuit said. The suit claims that the liquor employee failed to verify the teen’s identification properly and should have known that the license used by the minor to make the purchase was not his own or fake and that it did not belong to the boy making the purchase.
Hot Shot is responsible for ensuring that it properly identifies fake or online purchased IDs to prevent minors from using them to buy alcohol, the suit said.
Prince became intoxicated after drinking the alcohol and was driving impaired when he lost control of his vehicle, ultimately dying from his injuries in the crash, the suit said. Prince had a blood alcohol level of more than the legal limit for an adult. The legal limit is .08%.
The suit, filed on Nov. 19, 2024, is seeking a jury trial.
