SC sheriff charges 3 parents of teens involved in shooting death, other crimes
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said three mothers have been charged with various offenses after they helped their children cover up a series of crimes.
Brandi Grice, 49, Ashley Layne, 42, and Leigha Ricks, 32, were charged Monday in connection with several violent, unrelated crimes committed by their children, Lott said during a news conference Tuesday.
Grice was charged with accessory after the fact of a felony after her son shot a person in the head with an aerosol gun and then, in a separate incident, collided head-on with a driver while operating a stolen car.
Layne was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor after her son was arrested in a shooting that killed a 23-year-old man and critically injured a woman on Miles Bowman Road in late January. Following that shooting, Ricks was charged with obstruction after her son was charged with participating in the murder.
“One thing I think is pretty significant about this is that all of (those arrested) have been moms,” Lott said. “No dads are involved. There were no dads in the home, and no dads involved in the lives of these kids.”
Grice accusations
Grice is accused of helping a group of teenagers, including two of her sons, cover up crimes during two separate incidents, Lott said.
Deputies were alerted on Jan. 23 that Grice brought her son to a hospital after he’d been shot in the lower body, Lott said.
An investigation revealed that the shooting occurred in the 100 block of Haven Circle, where four teens were gathered at Grice’s residence. There, her son was shot following an altercation, according to a news release.
Grice, who wasn’t home at the time of the incident, was called to the home after the shooting and then drove three of the teens, including the shooter to another location, while taking her son, the fourth and injured juvenile, to the hospital, a news release said.
The juvenile shooter in that incident has yet to be identified, Lott said, and the investigation is ongoing.
Several days later, the same group of teens who Grice allegedly transported were involved in a head-on collision while driving a stolen car out of Lexington County, according to Lott.
Following the crash, one of the teens — another of Grice’s sons who is 17 years old — was seen running from the scene with a firearm, according to a news release. A Richland County K9 eventually tracked down the juvenile and the gun he illegally possessed. That teen was the brother of the juvenile shot on Haven Circle, and was charged with possession of a firearm under 18 and possession of a stolen gun, according to a news release.
Shooting on Miles Bowman Road
Layne and Ricks were implicated in a shooting committed by their children on Miles Bowman Road on Jan. 28, Lott said.
Around 9:30 p.m., deputies responded to a shooting at the 1000 block of Miles Bowman Road, where they discovered a 23-year-old man shot dead in the front passenger seat of a car and a woman outside the vehicle, according to a news release. She had been shot in her upper body.
Miles Bowman Road is in the Irmo area about four miles from Dutch Fork High School.
Five teens have been charged in connection with the shooting, including Jackson Layne, 17 — Ashley Layne’s son — and another unnamed 16-year-old, who was Ricks’ son.
Ashley Layne is accused of picking up two of the shooters from the scene of the crime, including her son, and taking them to her residence without alerting the sheriff’s department, according to a news release.
In addition, deputies learned that Ricks was notified of her son’s involvement in the shooting but helped him evade police by advising him to stay away from home, according to a news release. She later told deputies that she had no knowledge of the incident.
The shooting, investigators say, stemmed from an “altercation between the four murder suspects and the deceased victim at another location shortly before the shooting,” the release said.
Four of the five teens were accused of firing more than 70 rounds. The suspects, ranging in age between 15 and 19, were all arrested over approximately two weeks, according to the sheriff’s department.
On Jan. 29, deputies located and arrested two of the suspected shooters — 19-year-old Peyton Kirby and a 15-year-old — at a residence, according to a news release. Both teens were charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Kirby was booked at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center while the 15-year-old was transported to the state Department of Juvenile Justice.
On Jan. 31, a third suspected shooter — Jackson Layne — was arrested in northeast Richland County. He was charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, a news release said. He was booked at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.
Seven days later, deputies arrested a 16-year-old suspected of involvement in the shooting, who faces the same charges as the three other suspects. That teen also was booked at DJJ.
Another 16-year-old was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice in connection with the murder, according to a news release.
This story was originally published February 11, 2025 at 4:46 PM.
