‘Shot 8 times’: Lawyers spar over murder near Myrtle Beach’s Broadway at the Beach
Ryan Bryant was shot and killed on a busy Myrtle Beach highway in 2018. Two years later, a jury will decide if Javaline Dawkins pulled the trigger.
State prosecutors and Dawkins’ attorney sparred on Tuesday morning to give opening statements in an Horry County courtroom. The trial for Dawkins started in earnest after jury selection. Dawkins faces murder and other counts in connection to the June 2018 shooting of Bryant.
He faces life in prison if convicted.
State prosecutors admittedly advocated that Dawkins is a killer, so sure that one solicitor compared it to the sun rising in the morning. Dawkins’ attorneys contend forensic evidence does not put Dawkins at the scene and he is an innocent man.
Investigators described the case as a drug deal gone wrong. Bryant was then put in the trunk of his own, red Cadillac and driven towards Myrtle Beach. Along U.S. 17 Bypass, near Broadway at the Beach, Bryant escaped the trunk and was gunned down.
Assistant Solicitor Chris Helms said Bryant first went to Tabor City, North Carolina, to meet with his cousins. There, they gave him some money before the deal. Bryant then went to meet with Dawkins, whom he knew. Dawkins’ phone communicates with Bryant’s phone thought the evening, Helms said.
The prosecutor told the jury they would see video of Bryant getting out of the trunk of his own, red Cadillac on U.S. 17 and trying to flee the area before being shot.
“Not once. Not twice. But eight times in the middle of Highway 17,” Helms said. “Shot eight times.”
The driver of Bryant’s Cadillac fired several shots, then did a U-Turn and fired again at Bryant, Helms said. The driver then took Bryant’s car to Dawkins’ home. Moments later, Dawkins’ vehicle is seen leaving his home.
Dawkins messaged several friends asking for help, Helms said. He met with his girlfriend and another friend. He asked to use that friend’s phone, which Helms said was because Dawkins knew the police would be looking for him.
“Javaline Dawkins knows the law is after him before the law knows [they are] after him,” Helms said.
However, defense attorney Preston Brittain implored the jury to look at the science in the case. He said Dawkins’ fingerprints were not found at the scene of the drug deal or in Bryant’s Cadillac. Brittain detailed how many surfaces had to be touched in the car based on the state’s theory, and then stated that none of the fingerprints matched Dawkins.
“There is not one piece of evidence they are going to give you that shows he stepped foot in the red Cadillac,” Brittain said.
The lawyer also had Dawkins stand up to show his hair that reached the middle of his back. Brittain said none of Dawkins’ hair was found in the Cadillac.
As Brittain concluded talking about the science, he angrily turned towards the state’s prosecutors and exclaimed, “put him in the Cadillac!” a reference to the lack of evidence against Dawkins.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 1:18 PM.
