SC jury finds Dennis guilty of stabbing murder of high school student at Lexington Cook Out

A Lexington County jury on Tuesday afternoon found Kierin Dennis guilty of murder in the 2014 knife stabbing death of Da’Von Capers at a Cook Out eatery in Lexington after a high school basketball game.

After the jury’s verdict, state Judge Eugene “Bubba” Griffith sentenced Dennis to 30 years in state prison. A murder conviction carries a mandatory 30-year minimum sentence in South Carolina. At the time of the crime, Dennis was 18.

The case had attracted statewide attention because it showed how a high school sports rivalry can turn deadly. It also underscored the need for a police presence at outside gatherings of teens from rival high schools. When Dennis killed Capers, there were no police anywhere nearby. Lexington law officers say they are more conscious now of the need for an increased police presence at certain youth gatherings.

The jury began deliberations on Monday afternoon, and its verdict was announced shortly after 3 p.m. in the large courtroom at the Westbrook Judicial Center in downtown Lexington.

Capers, a 17-year old Dutch Fork High School senior, died within minutes after being stabbed in the chest with a knifein the parking lot of the Cook Out after a confrontation between Dutch Fork students and current and former Lexington High School students.

Dennis will get five years’ prison credit for living the last five years under house arrest, Griffith said, meaning that Dennis will be serving the next 25 years — and not 30 — in prison. Since his arrest in 2014, Dennis has worn an ankle monitor and been allowed to work various jobs, including being a welder and a furniture mover..

During the weeklong trial, Dennis chose not to testify. At the time of the killing, he was a recent graduate of Lexington High School.

Instead, Dennis’ attorney, Todd Rutherford, presented his defense in his cross-examination of some 17 prosecution witnesses.

Dennis’ first trial, in 2016, resulted in a hung jury. In that trial, Dennis testified that he feared for his life and grabbed a knife in the front seat of his SUV and stabbed Capers only when Capers reached into his vehicle through the driver’s front window.

“He was attacking me in my vehicle. I had to do what I did to defend myself. I wish there could have been another way,” Dennis told the jury in that trial.

The prosecution contended that Capers was close to, but outside, Dennis’s car and not threatening Dennis at the time of the stabbing.

Videos of the incident did not clearly show what happened at the time Dennis’s knife came out.

After the stabbing, Dennis fled the scene and was arrested a few hours later. His case was not helped by prosecution evidence that on returning home, he buried the death knife in a hole he dug in a neighbor’s yard. He also admitted to police he had washed his clothes when he got home and told officers, “I guess I thought I could get away with it. Nobody gets away with murder.”

The stabbing took place after a basketball game between rivals Dutch Fork and Lexington High School. Dutch Fork won the game by five points in a come-from-behind victory.

According to prosecution evidence in the case, students from the two schools had exchanged taunts during and after the basketball game, with Dennis challenging Dutch Fork students to meet him at the Cook Out because “he had something for them.” Things were so tense at the game that security officers had students from the two schools leave by separate exits.

At the Cook Out, which was packed with Dutch Fork students, nothing initially happened. Then Dennis and some friends went out to the parking lot, got in their vehicles and drove off, coming back toward the Cook Out and the Dutch Fork students.

Dennis’s friends in the vehicle ahead of Dennis threw some money out the window, calling to Dutch Fork students and saying, “This is all y’all are worth,” according to prosecution evidence.

Then Dennis, alone in his SUV, first accelerated toward the Dutch Fork students, then slowed and came to a stop. At that point, Dutch Fork students crowded around his window and, seconds later, Capers was stabbed and Dennis took off.

.The fatal confrontation - with the students around Dennis’s SUV - took just 32 seconds.

Before that night, the two young men — killer and victim — had never met each other.

Defense attorney Rutherford, who tried the case with attorney Nicole Simpson, said later Tuesday he will likely appeal.

A key issue will be the judge’s alleged failure to charge the jury that it was entitled to consider a “stand your grand” defense by Dennis, Rutherford said.

“If you are in an occupied vehicle, you do not have to retreat,” Rutherford said. “The jurors were not told about that. There is a presumption that some one entering your vehicle is trying to harm you, and you can act on it.”

Eleventh Circuit Solicitor Rick Hubbard, who tried the case with assistant prosecutor Rhonda Patterson, said after the trial, “This was a tough one for everybody. It’s been a long, hard road — very difficult for the Capers family.”

Hubbard continued, “We are just grateful the jury was able to hear everything, consider everything, and we’re truly grateful for the verdict.” Now both families can move forward, Hubbard said.

Hubbard said he didn’t believe that Dennis should have been allowed to assert a “stand your ground” defense.

“Our Supreme Court has ruled the ‘stand your ground’ statute applies pre-trial, and that it is an immunity statute designed to determine whether somebody goes to trial or not,” Hubbard said.

This story was originally published August 27, 2019 at 3:18 PM.