Former loan officer Jerome Campbell convicted in killing at gas station

A former Charlotte loan officer, caught in a complicated dispute between families, might not have fired the shot that killed a man at a gas station in 2009 but was convicted of murder anyway for his role in the attack.

A Charleston County jury on Friday found Jerome Renaldo Campbell, 37, guilty of murder and three counts of assault with intent to kill in a shooting at the Kangaroo Express on Old Towne Road in West Ashley that killed 20-year-old Michael German.

Circuit Judge Deadra Jefferson sentenced Campbell to 30 years in prison on the murder conviction and 10 years on each of the assault with intent to kill convictions. The sentences will run concurrently.

Campbell is not eligible for parole or early release.

Prosecutors said Campbell and other, unknown men drove through German's apartment complex on Jan. 9, 2009, and made threats with a gun.

Witnesses saw Campbell's car driving past German, German's twin brother Anthony and another man, Michael Allen, at the gas station, when witnesses heard shots shortly before 11 p.m.

A bullet ricocheted off the wall of the gas station and struck German in the head. Prosecutors said Campbell might not have pulled the trigger, but that he is as legally responsible as the person who did.

Prosecutors also said German might not have been the intended target in the shooting.

German had attended Darlington and Stall high schools, and he worked on an assembly line at a Honeywell International plant when he died. His twin brother and Campbell's niece had welcomed a baby just days earlier, and Campbell's mother had become upset that she hadn't met the newborn yet.

Authorities said the dispute between the families hinged on that fact, in part.

In court, Campbell's mother testified that her son had graduated from James Island High School and the University of South Alabama and that he married his high school sweetheart. Although Campbell was working in the financial industry in Charlotte, he often came to Charleston to sell sneakers, his mother testified.

Campbell's mother and sister testified that Michael German threatened to kill Campbell. The elder woman also said Michael German told her he belonged to the Bloods gang.

Anthony German testified that neither he nor his brother ever said Campbell would die. He also denied any gang involvement, despite the fact that the brothers both wore Bloods colors the day of the shooting.

"If I put on a red shirt, I'm pretty sure my brother's going to try to put on a red shirt, because we're twins," German said. "We were known to wear the same color."

Defense attorney Stephen Harris argued that his client shot at the other men only in an act of self-defense, pointing to gunshot residue on two of the men's hands.

"Them firing first got their brother killed," Harris said. "They took an armed crew of people to get Jerome Campbell. Their intention was to kill Jerome Campbell."

Harris suggested that prosecutors simply wanted "to make somebody pay for this."

In his closing arguments, Assistant Solicitor Greg Voigt called the case a tragedy for Campbell, a man who had everything. Voigt dismissed the notion of self-defense and instead characterized Campbell as someone who drove down to take care of problems between the men he attacked and the women in his family.

Voigt showed the jury a photo of German's body covered with a yellow tarp and said, "Right there, that's malice." Voigt noted that no witness said Michael German fired a gun.

"One man had everything, had everything and in a play in three acts, he threw it away, and I can't tell you why," Voigt said. "Because that's the point of a tragedy. It shouldn't have happened."

Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or on Twitter at @allysonjbird.