Lexington County (WLTX) - Lexington County deputies have charged two men who they say randomly picked out a man and killed him.
Detectives have charged 22-year-old Phillip Harold Jackson and 20-year-old D'Marqus Laquen Thomas with murder.
The two were already in jail on charges of armed robbery, first-degree burglary, criminal conspiracy, and possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime stemming from an earlier crime.
On November 1, deputies say Jackson and Thomas used a handgun to shoot 20-year-old James Wilbur Lybrand III in the head.
At the time of the killing, Lybrand was walking in the 600 block of Old Wire Road near West Columbia. Investigators say the men came up beside him in a car, and asked him to come to their vehicle. When they did, officers say the pair shot Lybrand at close range.
Investigators believe Jackson and Thomas just decided to kill someone, and that they encountered Lybrand, who they didn't know, by chance.
Officers do not believe the murder is drug or gang related.
Deputies were first alerted to the crime when a woman who lives in the area called 9-1-1.
Investigators say murder charges are also pending against 24-year-old Neo Desmond Colin Haywood and 22-year-old Justin Lavar Jones in connection with the case. Deputies have not said what their role in the crime was. That pair was already being held on unrelated charges.
11/20/2009 8:00:08 PM
