HORRY COUNTY, SC (WMBF) – The second defendant in a civil lawsuit over a deadly road rage shooting in Horry County will not receive immunity.
That is according to a news order from the judge who heard both Weldon Boyd and Kenneth Williams’ arguments for immunity through South Carolina’s stand-your-ground law in a civil lawsuit against the two.
South Carolina’s stand-your-ground law applies when the use of deadly force is deemed lawful.
Authorities said Weldon Boyd, the owner of Buoys on the Boulevard in North Myrtle Beach, shot and killed Scott Spivey along Camp Swamp Road in the Longs area following a road-rage incident in 2023.
The judge issued an order on Friday that rejects Williams’s, who was the passenger in Boyd’s truck, immunity request.
The order stated that Williams ”failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he is entitled to immunity under the Act on any ground.”
The stand-your-ground hearing in question began in Horry County on Feb. 17 and ended on Feb. 20, with the judge immediately denying Weldon Boyd’s request.
The hearing specifically stems from the lawsuit filed by Spivey’s estate, which claimed that Spivey died in a “hail of gunfire” as Boyd chased Spivey.
The judge took Williams’ request under advisement, stating that Williams, Boyd’s passenger during the September 2023 shooting, did not want to be there.
Meanwhile, in a lawsuit filed by Boyd against the attorney for the Spivey family, Tinsley, Boyd claims Spivey single-handedly initiated the road rage incident by stalking and assaulting Boyd and others on Horry County highways, and waving a gun.
The judge said Williams did not want to be there, citing that Williams told Boyd to slow down while driving and, moments before the shooting, told Boyd to back the truck up.
The order states that Boyd and Williams chased Spivey five to nine miles, with Spivey and Boyd’s trucks reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.
The order also points to testimony that the judge found contradictory.
For example, the video of Boyd taken the night of the shooting shows he saw Spivey stopped about yards away when Boyd began his turn onto Camp Swamp Road, despite denying it during the hearing.
The order also states that Boyd also can be heard on the 911 call saying he intents to keep following Spivey and that that he was about to have a “shootout.”
“Despite Spivey being stopped in the roadway and no longer posing an immediate threat due to his driving or otherwise, the Defendants drove up toward Spivey and stopped a distance behind Spivey’s truck,” the order reads. “Spivey got out of his truck with his handgun down by his side and shouted to Boyd and Williams to stop following him.”
Both Boyd and Williams claimed during the hearing that they only drew their weapons after or about the time Spivey fired, but the order said that the evidence contradicts this claim.
Boyd and Williams have maintained they fired shots at Spivey in self-defense, and have never been criminally charged in the case.
Had the judge ruled in favor of immunity for Boyd and Williams, that would have essentially ended any potential criminal charges against them in the shooting.
This is a developing story. Stay with WMBF News for updates.
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