He Testified He Never Saw Who He Was Shooting At. Now He Wants Stand Your Ground Immunity for a Teen’s Death.

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COLUMBIA, SC — A 20-year-old man charged with murder in the 2024 shooting death of a 16-year-old bystander testified Monday that he fired back during a chaotic graduation-party shootout but never saw who was shooting at him, and he is now asking a judge to grant him immunity under South Carolina’s Stand Your Ground law.

Tonie Wilson took the stand Monday in Richland County as his immunity hearing began, as reported by WIS, which detailed the charges and the state’s ballistic allegations, and by WACH, which reported his testimony that he fired back but never saw who was firing at him. No court opinion is available because the judge has not ruled. Everything below comes from in-court testimony and argument as the two outlets reported it, not from a written record of any holding.

Wilson is charged with murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and breach of the peace of a high and aggravated nature, according to Columbia police and court testimony reported by WIS. The teen who died was Julian “JuJu” Keel, a three-sport athlete at W.J. Keenan High School. Prosecutors say Keel was an innocent bystander, not the target of anyone’s gunfire, when he was shot in the upper body while trying to leave a graduation party outside a Columbia business on June 2, 2024. He died at a hospital. He would have turned 17 two days later.

Here is the scene the state describes. More than 100 people were at the party when a confrontation between two groups escalated into gunfire, investigators said, and more than 50 rounds were fired from at least four different guns, as reported by WIS. That detail is the center of this case. When dozens of rounds come from four or more weapons in a crowd, nobody in that parking lot could say with certainty where every bullet came from, and that cuts in more than one direction.

Wilson’s defense is self-defense. His attorney argued he did not know the rival group would be at the party, came unarmed on a last-minute decision to attend, and only picked up a friend’s gun and fired back after shots were already coming at him and his friends. “Shots are fired at his back, he waits for the shots to stop, they don’t, so he shoots back,” defense attorney Makenzie Thomas argued, according to WACH. “Unfortunately, an innocent bystander was shot and killed.” Wilson testified he feared for his life because, in his words, these were “the same people that said they would kill me the next time they see me.”

I am not a lawyer, but the piece that stops me is Wilson’s own testimony that he fired back and never saw who was shooting at him. South Carolina’s Protection of Persons and Property Act, the state’s Stand Your Ground statute, protects a person who reasonably believes deadly force is necessary against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm. Blind-firing into a crowd of roughly 100 to 200 people, which is how the state characterized Wilson’s conduct, is a hard fit for a law built around a defender who identifies and meets a specific threat. The defense frames it as returning fire under attack. The prosecution frames it as firing about 20 rounds into a crowd. The judge has to decide which account the law covers, and that is exactly what Stand Your Ground immunity hearings are for. If you carry in South Carolina, the state’s self-defense and permit framework is worth knowing cold before you ever have to invoke it.

There is a second question tangled in the first. Prosecutors allege a bullet fired by Wilson struck Keel in the back, traveled through the vehicle he was in, and exited the windshield, and they say Wilson armed himself with a .300 Blackout rifle, walked back into the crowd, and fired about 20 rounds, prompting return fire, as reported by WIS. That is the state’s theory of who killed Keel. It is an allegation, not a finding. With more than 50 rounds flying from at least four guns, the question of whose round killed a bystander is precisely the kind of thing the state will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt if this reaches trial. For now, Wilson is charged, not convicted, and no court has ruled on either his immunity claim or his guilt.

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Prosecutors pushed back hard on the self-defense account, pressing Wilson about prior conflicts with the juvenile co-defendant and about alleged threats he made before the shooting. On cross-examination they asked whether he had threatened to shoot up the other suspect’s mother’s house. Wilson denied remembering making the threat or telling law enforcement he had, according to WACH. The state also asked why he did not simply leave a parking lot packed with people instead of staying and firing. Columbia police announced the arrests of Wilson and a second suspect, who was 16 at the time, in October 2024. Wilson has been held at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center since being denied bond in May 2025, as reported by WIS.

The hearing produced no ruling Monday and is scheduled to resume Tuesday at 1:30 p.m., after prosecutors said their witnesses would not be available until then. The judge’s decision will determine whether Wilson is immune from prosecution or whether the murder case proceeds to trial. I will continue tracking the outcome of the Stand Your Ground hearing.

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