On June 6, 2015, 29-year-old Leric Merriweather was shot and later died after attending a family cookout in Edgefield, South Carolina. A verbal dispute earlier in the day led Merriweather to ask several people, including Montrell Deshawn Troutman, to leave his property. Hours later, around 8:45 p.m., Troutman returned armed and confronted Merriweather as he sat in a vehicle on Moragne Street with two friends, Keith Mathis and Carlo Harris.

Troutman loaded a gun, exchanged words with the three men, and fired, striking Merriweather in the chest; the bullet pierced his lungs and he died shortly afterward at a local hospital. Harris suffered a leg injury when Troutman fired at him as Mathis and Harris fled. Troutman left the scene, went to a friend’s house, hid in woods for about an hour, and then turned himself in to police.

The trial relied largely on eyewitness testimony; Troutman was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Did anyone at the cookout know more about what sparked the initial argument or the confrontation later that night?