Police: Man who drove getaway car in McKelvin murder arrested

The second arrest in as many days in connection a two-year-old murder case has been announced by the Columbia Police Department.

Nelson Smith, 21, is charged with accessory after the fact in the alleged murder Nov. 15, 2013, of Nathaniel McKelvin. Police say Smith drove co-defendant and murder suspect Jacob Green to 735 Martha St. where the crime occurred, and then drove him away after the shooting.

Green, 24, of Columbia was already in jail in connection with a 2014 shooting in Five Points when police announced Tuesday he also has been charged in McKelvin’s death with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

The 21-year-old McKelvin was found shot to death Nov. 15, 2013, on the front porch of the Martha Street address in the Greenview neighborhood in north Columbia.

In announcing Green’s arrest, Police Chief Skip Holbrook said this week that although a motive has not been determined, “the shooting was not a random act of violence and has ties to gang activity.”

The night of the shooting, McKelvin had gone to a friend’s house on Martha Street to get a haircut from a friend and to hang out with neighborhood buddies, his family and friends told The State newspaper in 2013. They said he was excited because he had just earned his commercial driver’s license and was to start training that Monday for a new truck-driving job in Georgia.

Since her son’s death, McKelvin’s mother, Roberta, has spoken out against gun violence in her north Columbia community. In late October, she and other gun violence victims confronted 50 repeat offenders out on parole or probation and identified as the most likely to commit or be a victim of a violent crime at an event in north Columbia sponsored by the U.S. attorney’s office and the Columbia Police Department.

“Put the guns down,” she pleaded in October, saying later she hoped everyone would learn how gun violence affects families. “When you take someone’s life like that, you not only take their life, you take their family’s life,” she said.

This story was originally published November 26, 2015 at 8:05 AM.