A 31-year-old Lexington County man was sentenced to 22 years in prison this week for the shooting death of Joshua Prine, 27, which occurred in the Red Bank area in 2015.
The trial began on Monday and during the middle of the trial, prior to the State resting its case, Marion Wade Frye entered his plea to voluntary manslaughter. This charge is a “no parole” offense in South Carolina.
“This was a very difficult case, but we are extremely proud of the hard work of our prosecution team, and tremendously appreciative of the assistance of law enforcement," Eleventh Circuit Solicitor Rick Hubbard said.
Information obtained by the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department during the homicide investigation revealed that Frye was involved in the illegal trade of methamphetamine. Frye arrived at a home on Marty Lane shortly before 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 1, 2015, and began a verbal altercation with several individuals at the home.
Witnesses at the scene reported that Frye was armed with a handgun in the waistband of his pants. Frye was prohibited from possessing a firearm while on probation for a drug conviction. Witnesses also said that Frye pulled the handgun from his waistband after starting a confrontation with Prine.
Several persons in the home attempted to disarm Frye, however, Frye fired the weapon twice and struck Prine in the back. Prine was unarmed.
Frye fled the scene following the shooting and a multi-agency manhunt ensued. Frye was apprehended the following day by deputies with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department while parked at a convenience store on Kay Street in Columbia. The firearm used in the homicide was never recovered.
During Frye’s sentencing hearing, family members of Joshua Prine, including his mother, sister, and girlfriend, conveyed the profound impact of his death. Also at the hearing, Lt. Jesse Laintz of the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department addressed the prevalence of violence related to illegal methamphetamine activity.
“We, as law enforcement and a community, are fighting an uphill battle against drugs,” Lt. Laintz said. “I have been in this courtroom four times, in just over a year, for people killing another person … three of those four have been directly related to meth.”
In January 2017, Charles Morehouse and Wiley Sisk III were sentenced for the murder of 22-year-old David Porter. Morehouse was sentenced to life imprisonment and Sisk to 45 years. Testimony at trial revealed that Morehouse, a meth dealer, mistakenly believed that Porter was a police informant. Porter was found murdered on Old Orangeburg Road with multiple gunshot wounds.
In August 2017, James Richard Elledge was sentenced to 25 years for the shooting death of Madison Leavitt, 24, in Gaston. Elledge fired an AK-47 into a vehicle in which Leavitt was a passenger. That investigation determined that Elledge was a known meth dealer.
The Frye homicide case was prosecuted by Deputy Solicitor Suzanne Mayes and Assistant Solicitor Gill Bell of the Eleventh Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
