Here is why the state dropped murder charges against a man accused in Loris club shooting
One of the men accused in a fatal nightclub shooting in Loris no longer faces murder charges after witnesses recanted their statements.
Horry County prosecutors dropped the murder charge against Dimnique Lequan Bellamy. Solicitor for the 15th Judicial Circuit Jimmy Richardson said the charge was dropped after witnesses changed their testimony ahead of trial.
Horry County police arrested Bellamy in 2017 in connection to a shooting at PNR Club in the Finklea Crossroads area of Loris that killed 37-year-old Laquint O’Neil Boyd.
Four other men and a woman were hurt in the gunfire at the club on North Green Sea Road on April 30, 2017.
Bellamy served about 400 days in jail after his arrest, his attorney said.
Bellamy was in Horry County Court on Wednesday to plead guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine. He was arrested in December 2017 when police found cocaine during a traffic stop, Senior Assistant Solicitor Lauree Richardson said.
The plea on the drug charge was not related to the murder case, Lauree Richardson stressed.
“This plea has no effect on those charges,” she said. “Those charges were not dismissed in lieu of this plea.”
Bellamy faced up to 15 years in prison on the drug count, but Judge William Seals sentenced him to time served. That meant Bellamy was free to leave the court and faces no further punishment in the case.
