Two men involved in a fatal home invasion in McClellanville five years ago have both been sentenced to life in prison.
On Friday, a Charleston County jury found Jeremiah Fitzgerald Belton (aka Finger) and King Chevais Conyers (aka Bez) guilty of murder, first-degree burglary and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, the 9th Circuit Solicitor’s Office announced Monday.
Around 4 a.m. on July 10, 2010, Belton, Conyers and three other men with guns broke into a house on Old Georgetown Road. Belton had come down from Charlotte and Conyers from West Columbia to rob the occupant of drugs and money.
Melvin Simmons Jr., 35, was killed in his bedroom. His girlfriend fatally shot one of the intruders, Curtis Darnell Delaney, 26, of North Charleston.
One of the intruders, Troy Mason, showed up at Trident Hospital later that morning with a gunshot wound. His DNA matched blood at the scene, and he turned himself in. Another intruder, Mario Caldwell, was arrested in 2012. Belton and Conyers were arrested last year.
Belton got a life sentence after the state filed a notice of intent to seek life without parole. He had been previously convicted of accessory after murder, possession of crack, voluntary manslaughter, purchasing body armor by a violent offender, failure to stop for a blue light, resisting arrest with a deadly weapon, possession of a stolen vehicle, driving under suspension and receiving stolen goods, according to prosecutors.
Conyers did not face a mandatory life sentence, but Judge Kristi Harrington sentenced him to life because of his record. He had previously been convicted of resisting arrest, breaking and entering an automobile, malicious injury to personal property and assault with intent to kill.
Delaney and Conyers were previously arrested together in 2002 in Charleston regarding a murder, although problems with evidence forced a dismissal of the charges against Conyers and a plea to accessory after the fact of murder for Delaney.
“Belton and Conyers have created mayhem in the streets of Charleston for years,” Assistant Solicitor Jennifer Shealy said in a statement.
Daniel Cooper also prosecuted the case.
Reach Dave Munday at (843) 937-5553.