WINNSBORO – In the second time in as many tries, the Sixth Circuit Solicitor’s Office has failed to get a conviction against the man charged with the 2011 murder of 18-year-old Rodrickous Ramon Wood.
Judge Brian Gibbons declared a mistrial in proceedings that wrapped up at the Fairfield County Courthouse on March 26 as a jury failed to produce a verdict against Stacy Ramon Hunter. A trial in October of 2013 resulted in a hung jury.
Riley Maxwell, Assistant Solicitor, would not comment in detail, calling the case “pending” as a result of last week’s outcome.
“It means we’re back to square one,” Maxwell said.
Wood was found by a Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputy in a parking lot behind the former Sammy Jo’s restaurant off Kincaid Bridge Road near the Highway 321 Bypass N. in Winnsboro on May 1, 2011. Deputies had responded to the area just after midnight in response to a report of gunshots fired after patrons of a private party were exiting the former All-in-One events center nearby.
According to the incident report, Wood, of 169 Flora Circle, Winnsboro, was surrounded by a small crowd of people who were trying to assist him. When the deputy approached the scene, he found Wood’s chest area covered in blood and called for an ambulance.
Witnesses reportedly told investigators that Hunter, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was in the passenger seat of a gray Nissan Maxima leaving the area after the party and that Hunter extended his body out of the passenger-side window, sat on the door and fired several shots over the roof of the Maxima and into the crowd as the car sped away. One of those shots struck Wood in the chest.
Wood was taken by ambulance to the Fairfield Memorial Hospital emergency room where he was later pronounced dead.
Hunter, of 4417 Hawthorne Ave., Columbia, was arrested a short time later and charged with murder.