Camden man accused of fatally shooting teen released on $200,000 bond

A Camden man accused of fatally shooting a teenager he says he caught stealing from his truck Feb. 13 was released from jail on a $200,000 bond Friday.

Jimmy Methe, a 49-year-old Desert Storm veteran, is charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of 17-year-old Brandon Spencer. Methe was released from jail after posting $6,000, or 3 percent, of the $200,000 bond set by Judge Casey Manning on Friday morning.

In deciding whether to set bail for Methe, Manning heard testimonies from prosecutors and friends and family of both Methe and Spencer at a bond hearing Wednesday, where bond was not immediately set for Methe.

Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews said Feb. 13 that Methe was charged because Spencer was fleeing the scene. An autopsy revealed Spencer was shot in the back of the head, Matthews said.

Deputies responded around 3 a.m. Saturday to Methe’s Norden Drive home. Methe told them he had shot a person, later identified as Spencer, after seeing Spencer and another person stealing items from his truck, according to the sheriff’s department.

Methe told law enforcement the two did not say anything as they fled, and that he did not see any weapons or any of his property in their hands, according to prosecutors.

Methe told deputies he warned both people – twice – as they tried to flee, ordering them to freeze, and threatening to shoot, a prosecutor told the judge Wednesday.

Spencer did not have any of Methe’s property on him when law enforcement found his body, prosecutors said.

Spencer, who was from North Carolina and had been living with his grandmother in Camden, was the father of a 2-year-old son, his grandmother said.

In a related development, Matthews said in a Friday afternoon news release that Isaac Levi Barrett, 17, and Hunter Thane McLendon, 18, both of Camden, and three 16-year-olds who were not publicly identified, have been charged with armed robbery with a deadly weapon in a Feb. 2 incident. All belonged to a group lead by Spencer, Matthews said.

“This investigation is continuing and we believe that one of the young men arrested in this case was present when Brandon Spencer was killed on February 13th,” Matthews said.

The five teenagers are accused of luring another teen out of his house and to a boat landing on Lake Wateree where they and Spencer threatened him with a knife and gun to the head, beat him up and stole his wallet which contained $350, Matthews said. The victim escaped his attackers and was able to call his parents on his cell phone.

Hunter and McLendon were released on bond. Two of the juveniles were released on bond, the third was being held by the SC Department of Juvenile Justice, Matthews said.

Rachael Myers Lowe contributed to this report.

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 11:53 AM with the headline "Camden man accused of fatally shooting teen released on $200,000 bond."