Teen who led deputies on chase in stolen car is charged with double murder, SC cops say
A teenager who was hospitalized after a January police chase in a stolen car ended in a crash has been charged with two counts of murder connected to a 2024 shooting, according to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.
On Tuesday, 18-year-old Devon Huguenin was arrested on a possession of a weapon during a violent crime charge along with the two counts of murder, the sheriff’s department said Wednesday in a news release. The charges stem from the Sept. 14, 2024, shooting deaths of men identified by the Richland County Coroner’s Office as 40-year-old Lexington resident Corey B. Johns and 37-year-old Columbia resident Jibaris J. Veal.
The car chase
At the time of Tuesday’s arrest on the shooting charges Huguenin was also served outstanding warrants connected to the Jan. 30 stolen car chase, the sheriff’s department said in the release.
Just before 2 p.m. on Jan. 30, deputies saw a stolen vehicle being driven on Percival Road and attempted a traffic stop, the sheriff’s department said. The driver, later identified as Huguenin, refused to stop and a pursuit began, according to the release.
The chase was terminated when deputies lost sight of the vehicle, but shortly after that the deputies were informed by dispatch of a wreck on Alpine Road where the stolen vehicle had crashed into a tree, the sheriff’s department said.
Sheriff’s department K-9 teams responded and located Huguenin, but he wasn’t arrested on the scene because he was injured in the wreck and had to be taken to a local hospital for treatment, according to the release. It was not clear if Huguenin was released from the hospital Tuesday.
The double homicide
Huguenin is one of three men charged with two counts of murder from the September 2024 shooting. Travis Harrison, 34, and Emerson Crespo, 36, were previously arrested in Johns’ and Veal’s deaths, the sheriff’s department said.
Late at night on Sept. 14, 2024, deputies responded to a report of a shooting in the 300 block of Koon Store Road, the sheriff’s department said. That’s in a more rural part of Columbia between U.S. 21/Wilson Boulevard and S.C. 215/Monticello Road.
Deputies found Johns’ and Veal’s bodies inside a vehicle, according to the release. The victims sustained multiple gunshot wounds and both were pronounced dead on scene, the sheriff’s department said.
Johns and Veal were not involved in any dispute with Crespo, Harrison or Huguenin, according to the sheriff’s department.
Through the course of the investigation, it was determined that the double homicide was connected to a Sept. 4, 2024 armed robbery, according to the release. Information about the connection between the two violent crimes was not available, but at about 9 p.m. on Sept. 4, deputies responded to Still Blazing smoke and vape shop, at 8712 Two Notch Road, and learned that an employee at the store was robbed at gun point, the sheriff’s department said.
Arrested
Justin Huguenin, 17, also was arrested in connection to the double homicide, according to the release. There was no word if Justin Huguenin and Devon Huguenin were related.
On Jan. 3, 2025, Justin Huguenin was charged with accessory after the fact of a felony — which in this case was the Sept. 14 double homicide, the sheriff’s department said. Justin Huguenin was charged as an adult and booked at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center but has since been released on bond, according to the release.
Devon Huguenin, Crespo and Harrison are all still being held at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center as no bond has been set on the murder charges, jail records show. All three of the men are also charged with other crimes separate from the September 2024 shooting, according to the sheriff’s department.
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