First gunman sentenced for 2022 Columbia mall shooting gets decades in prison
A man who was charged in the 2022 mass shooting at Columbiana Mall will spend the next three decades in prison after he was sentenced at the Lexington County Courthouse on Friday.
Jewayne Price, 25, was sentenced to 35 years in state prison after a jury earlier found Price guilty of two counts of attempted murder and nine counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.
Price was one of three people arrested for the 2022 shooting at the mall off Harbison Boulevard, when crossfire from a gunfight left nine bystanders injured and spread panic throughout a crowded shopping center on Easter weekend.
Price is the first of the three to be sentenced for the shooting. Two others, 22-year-old Marquise Robinson and 24-year-old Amari Smith, are also awaiting sentencing. Smith pleaded guilty last October to one count of attempted murder and nine counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. Robinson was convicted after trial in November on assault and battery charges, but was acquitted of attempted murder.
Multiple victims of the Saturday afternoon shooting, ranging in age from 16 to 73, testified of the affect Price’s actions had on their lives before Judge Walton McLeod handed down the judgment, the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said in a news release.
Investigators said Price had a pre-existing dispute with Robinson and Smith when the three crossed paths at the mall. Surveillance video shown at Price’s trial showed him pulling a 9mm firearm and firing at the other two men, who also produced guns from their waistbands and Smith fired at Price. At least 17 rounds of ammunition were recovered by investigators inside the mall.
While nine people required treatment for gunshot wounds and other injuries after the shootout, none of the three men charged in the shooting were injured.
“A sentence in this case must send a message to anyone who brings this type of violence into a mall or public setting … a sentence that reflects the harm caused that day, by a mass shooting in a mall in our county,” McLeod said in imposing sentence, per the release.
“The violent nature of this mass shooting shocked the conscience of our community in Lexington County and negatively impacted many, many lives,” Solicitor Rick Hubbard said in a statement. “We are relieved that the persons responsible have been brought to justice, for the sake of our community and the innocent victims.”
Robinson and Smith will be sentenced at a later date.
Javon L. Harris contributed to this story.
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