Posted on June 2, 2021

Man Who Told Police He Fatally Shot Ex-Hardeeville Fire Chief in 2017 Found Not Guilty

Lana Ferguson, Island Packet, May 27, 2021

Although Devon Dunham confessed to fatally shooting former Hardeeville volunteer fire chief Ernest Martin Stevens in a public parking lot in 2017, a Jasper County jury found him not guilty of murder Thursday.

Dunham breathed an audible sigh of relief through his face mask after hearing the verdict and softly fist-bumped his attorney.

The jury deliberated less than two hours.

Stevens, 77, was shot to death just before 9 a.m. Aug. 10, 2017, while sitting in the driver’s seat of his Ford F-150 truck in the Argent Square parking lot near his home off Ulman Street in Hardeeville.

{snip}

Because he was not found guilty of murder, he could not be found guilty of the latter charge.

{snip}

During closing arguments on Thursday, 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone wove together a story of a frustrated Dunham searching for a ride when he came across Stevens.

{snip}

Stone alleged Dunham walked up to Stevens, told him to give him the truck, then unloaded all eight rounds in his 9 mm handgun when Stevens tried to drive away.

{snip}

Dunham’s defense attorney, Beaufort-based Jeffery Stephens, said Dunham wanted a ride but felt threatened by Stevens, and that’s when he began firing shots.

{snip}

The defense began arguing that race, Dunham being a Black man and Stevens being white, could have played a part in the incident, but Stone objected and the judge agreed to not allow the theory.

Dunham’s lack of “intent to harm means it’s not murder,” Stephens said.

{snip}

Original Article