CHARLESTON — Two men jailed for more than a year in a deadly nightclub shooting on Edisto Island have been cleared of murder charges.
Prosecutors said they dropped the charges after the statements of alibi witnesses and other evidence raised strong doubts about the involvement of Craig Brown, 22, and Arthur Lee Moultrie, 30, in June 2010, The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Saturday.
The decision has left the two men and defense lawyers pointing the finger at detectives, who defend the long jail stays by saying alibi witnesses wouldn’t work with them.
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“How could they just lock me up for no reason, with no investigation – nothing – and just throw away the key?’ Moultrie said.
Investigators said an eyewitness who came forward four days after the shooting identified Brown, Moultrie and Brown’s older brother, Kendrell, as gunmen in the death of Kavares Brown, 29. Three gunmen with bandanas over their faces jumped from an old sedan and opened fire on a crowd that gathered outside the cinderblock roadhouse, peppering Kavares Brown with bullets, a witness said.
The case remains in effect against Kendrell Brown, who is not related to the victim.
Authorities left the pair in jail for months despite doubts about the eyewitness’ identification and a lack of physical evidence tying the two men to the crime, defense attorneys said.
“Basically, no one would stick their neck out on a murder charge and admit how weak this case was,” said Meg Fanning Horn, Moultrie’s lawyer.
Charleston County Chief Deputy John Clark said of 16 potential witnesses, only three agreed to speak with investigators and two of those gave conflicting statements.
“We were more than happy to listen to anything anyone had to say about the investigation,” Clark said. “Trust me, we don’t want people in jail who are not involved in a crime. That’s not how we operate.”
Moultrie and Craig Brown said friends tried to contact the lead investigator on the case, but he didn’t return calls or wasn’t around when they went to meet with him. Moultrie said the investigator also refused his repeated pleas to take a polygraph test.
As the months passed, the state’s eyewitness said his confidence that he had identified the right men from the photo line-up faded until he was about “50-50,” said Lauren Williams, Craig Brown’s attorney.
Though detectives said alibi witnesses for Moultrie were reluctant to speak to them, they came to tell their stories to prosecutor Rutledge Durant at a meeting arranged by the defense’s private detective.
Detectives never checked Craig Brown’s cellphone records, which showed he made a call around the time of the shooting that passed through a transmission tower about 20 miles from the nightclub, Williams said.
Clark said investigators probed every lead.
“We cannot just go by what other people tell us,” he said. “Every time someone tells us something we have to substantiate and corroborate it, and that’s what we did here.”
Moultrie remains behind bars because a Family Court judge sentenced him to three months in jail for $3,000 in unpaid child support. The judge gave him no credit for the time already served, Moultrie and his lawyer said
