Nine teenagers in South Carolina are facing criminal charges for allegedly conspiring to kill another teen “over a female” — with one of the youths gunning down a 16-year-old boy — after luring him to a location with the victim’s girlfriend and other suspects, one of whom recorded everything on video, according to cops.
“It’s kind of hard to deny what we see … with our eyes,” said Maj. Mike Nunn of the Florence County Sheriff’s Office in an interview with local CBS affiliate WBTW. “And what’s posted on social media, audio, video, those types of things,” he went on.
Devan Raper, 19, is accused of carrying out the alleged shooting attack on June 24 in Johnsonville, allegedly pumping bullets into local resident and fellow teen Trey Wright before abandoning him on First Neck Road, according to the Florence County Sheriff’s Office. According to police, Wright’s girlfriend, Gianna Kistenmacher, 17, allegedly helped lure the teen to the location where Raper shot him.
Seven more people have been charged in connection with the incident, with four posting bond last week. The rapist and one other defendant remain in custody without bond. Kistenmacher’s charges have been upgraded from accessory to a felony to murder.
“My baby never deserved anything that happened to him, period,” Wright’s mother, Ashley Lindsey, told WBTW following the teens’ arrest. “He was one of a million.” He was good to people’s souls. His happiness was contagious. Lindsey described him as one of the most kind-hearted children she had ever met.
According to police, Raper arrived to meet Wright on Tuesday night and engaged in a “verbal altercation” with him prior to the shooting. The other defendants allegedly helped coordinate everything and were “complicit in bringing the armed codefendant, Raper, to the incident location and knowing that there would be a confrontation,” according to Nunn.
“They knew that Raper had presented a firearm to the victim and made threats to shoot him,” Nunn told reporters.
Deputies discovered Wright “laying in the roadway” with multiple gunshot wounds around 11:30 p.m., according to a press release from the sheriff’s office. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
“This was an altercation between two people,” Sheriff TJ Joye told local CBS affiliate WBTW last month, following Raper and Kistenmacher’s arrest. “They had issues with each other and it was over a female,” Joye told the newspaper. “The sad thing is, you have a 16-year-old who died. You have a 19-year-old who will be in jail for the rest of his life. “Over what?”
Police say three of the others charged — Sydney Kearns, 17, Corrinne Belviso, and Hunter Kendall, both 18 — allegedly assisted Raper by bringing him to meet Wright, knowing he had a loaded firearm and intended to kill him. At least one of them recorded the incident, but officials haven’t revealed who.
“A lot of times the people involved record the event,” Nunn told me. “So that takes a lot of the guesswork out of it.”
According to online court records, at least four defendants, including Belviso and Kearns, were released last week after posting bond. Raper is being held at the Florence County Detention Center. Kistenmacher is out on bond while she awaits her bond hearing.
Wright, a high school student in Florence School District 5, was described as a “kind soul who touched so many lives,” according to a GoFundMe page.
Wright’s friend, Ethan Kirby, told WBTW that Wright and Raper had previously hung out and were allegedly friends.
“It’s an unreal act that we never thought could happen to Trey,” Kirby told me. “Honestly, I’m in disbelief at what’s happened right now.”
