A triple-prasser trial of Berkeley County begins

Berkeley County, SC (WCSC) – now a process for a man from Berkeley County, accused of taking three people, plus he had plundered more.

Robert Anthony Mayes is accused of three charges of murder, five charges of armed robbery and three charges of attempted robbery in a crime that happened on July 3, 2020.

The state claims that Mayes robbed three people with a weapon at a Mobile Housing Park on Red Bank Road, robbed two people with a weapon on the shadow drive and shot and killed three people on Oakside Drive. Night, on July 3, 2020.

However, defense says that Mayes is not the guilty and is his alleged complicit, Jabaari Ferguson, 28, who is to blame. He also faces the same accusations in his own case.

On Tuesday in court, three deputies of the sheriff in Berkeley County gave the testimony and three alleged victims and gave the account of how they were robbed.

All three used a translator to testify to court.

The translator for the victim of the reinforced robbery, Atalo Juarez Garcia, says that he and some family members were outside their house that night, when two black men approached them.

“Well, I was talking when they approached us and I felt some fear that they were armed,” said Juarez Garcia.

The translator for another victim of the armed robbery, Margarito Juarez Garcia, remembers the same story in a separate location. He says he and two other family members were in a utility vehicle outside their house, when his brother was attacked.

“So he took him out, a kind of shirt, and he dragged him from the car,” said Juarez Garcia. “And he was around his neck and suffocated him. And he suffocates with the food he gave him my nephew. “

In addition, the jury came to see pictures of the security room of two men who were approaching and running out of the same robbery scene.

One of these men was Ferguson, who also testified on behalf of the state. He claims that Mayes passed “crazy” and did not know each other well. When asked why he went out with Mayes that night, he says he was because he needed money and knew that Mayes was interested in robbing people.

Prosecutor Julie Rochester asked if there are a certain type of people he wants to target, to which Ferguson replied “Mexicans”.

He refers to why Mayes wanted to target this demographic.

“Because they have no weapons, they do not use banks and most are illegal,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson recognizes that he drove the getaway and kept people at the point to take their money, but says he didn’t shoot anyone.

Rochester asks Ferguson about how it was when they arrived in the final location.

“I thought he would rob them,” Ferguson said. “… I didn’t know he would kill them.”

Although he admits that he has lied to the police countless times during the investigation, he finally confessed. He also says, although he lied about some of his actions, he never lied to who he was with him that night.

“So when you jump out of the car and hear shootings, what do you think?” Said Rochester. “What are you thinking about?”

“I just started to get rid of it,” Ferguson said. “This should not happen.”

The jury also heard from the mother of Ferguson’s child, who claims that he never met Mayes until the beginning of that day. She was also able to identify her in applying the law as the one who had a long weapon in her car that day, later leading to her arrest.

It is expected that the trial will be resumed on Wednesday at 9:30 am at the Berkeley County Court.

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