'Her body was left there to die': Opening arguments in K&W murder case
Members of Amanda Fisher’s family looked to the ground and sobbed as Assistant Solicitor Seth Oskin described how a bullet hit Fisher behind the right ear and traveled out the other side, killing her.
Two men then took her body from a car and left her in the parking lot of a North Myrtle Beach K&W Cafeteria in July 2016, the prosecutor said.
“Her body was left there to die, the defendants couldn’t get out there fast enough,” Oskin said.
Fisher’s two accused killers, Nicolas McIver and Terrell Freeman, were in court on Monday for the start of their trial. Police charged both with murder, kidnapping, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and grand larceny.
Each side had the chance to present its opening arguments to a jury. McIver wore a gray suit, thick black glasses and his hair tied into a ponytail. Freeman sat in a yellow shirt as both listen intently as the lawyers discussed the case.
Neither side disputes that Fisher, McIver, Freeman and another man met each other for the first time while in Myrtle Beach and spent a night partying. McIver and Freeman are from the Charlotte, North Carolina area.
The next day, the group went to a home in North Carolina before McIver, Freeman and Fisher returned to the K&W in North Myrtle Beach.
Oskin said that Kenneth Thompson was in the cafeteria parking lot on July 9. He heard a pop, initially believing he blew a tire. Then he saw two men removing a woman’s body from a car.
After the killing, Oskin said, Freeman drove McIver’s truck back to the Charlotte area while McIver drove Fisher’s car toward Charlotte. When McIver was near his girlfriend’s home, he burned Fisher’s car, Oskin said.
Oskin said the state’s case was based on the idea that when one person does a crime with a group, everybody involved is guilty.
That point, McIver’s attorney Gregory Bellamy questioned during his opening. He said they know Fisher was only shot once, so both McIver and Freeman couldn’t have pulled the trigger.
Bellamy said he believes the evidence will suggest there was some type of disagreement and anger and someone lost it leading to the shooting.
Though Bellamy admitted that McIver was guilty of grand larceny and being an accessory after the fact, but he's not facing charges for the latter crime.
Freeman’s attorney Martin Spratlin said life can change in minutes, whether that is getting shot or being falsely accused.
“That is the situation my client Terrell Freeman finds himself, charged with four crimes he didn’t do,” Spratlin said.
When the evidence is presented, Spratlin said, the jury will see that Freeman never wanted to harm Fisher, who he had just met.
This story was originally published April 23, 2018 at 5:52 PM with the headline "'Her body was left there to die': Opening arguments in K&W murder case."