Man convicted of murdering CCU student in drug deal gone bad asks for new trial
A man convicted of killing a Coastal Carolina University student during a drug deal says he should get a new trial as his lawyer was ineffective.
Marquis McDonald filed a post-conviction relief request in Horry County court this week. The request is a legal filing, usually after standard appeals, where a convicted person argues why they should not be in prison.
McDonald was convicted of murder and armed robbery in 2014 for the shooting of Anthony Liddell Jr. The 2013 shooting happened during a drug deal for pot in the old-University Place Apartments parking lot, investigators said. Liddell, a 19-year-old sophomore at Coastal Carolina, lived at the off-campus complex. Police found Liddell in the parking lot and he died at the hospital about an hour later. Another suspect was also charged in connection to the murder.
McDonald, now 28, was sentenced to 45 years in prison for murder and armed robbery. He is housed at the high-security Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
In the latest filing, McDonald listed dozens of ways his trial lawyer was ineffective, and asks for a new trial. The reasons included:
- A failure to call a crime scene reconstructionist to testify during the trial.
- A failure to object to various cell phone tracking data.
- A failure to object to testimony about the trajectory of the bullets.
- A failure to request a jury instruction that noted the purchase of marijuana is not a felony.
- A failure to object to testimony by witnesses in the case.
In 2017, the South Carolina Court of Appeals rejected McDonald’s previous appeal attempt. In that appeal, he argued the court was wrong to allow some of the cell phone tracking testimony and for allowing his prior felony convictions to be used during the trial.
