AIKEN, S.C. (AP) —
Prosecutors have dropped a murder charge against a man who spent nearly five years in jail and had two trials end with deadlocked juries.
Dawon Wells, 22, was set to stand trial again this month, but Solicitor Bill Weeks said a key witness who testified in the past two trials about seeing Wells shoot the victim and dump him in the back of a pickup truck refused to testify again.
“My office worked our butts off to get justice for this family, and we don’t ever try anybody we don’t think is guilty. But I couldn’t get 12 people on two different juries to agree with us, so this is the only option left to me,” Wells told the Aiken Standard.
The body of Denzel Bates was found dead in the back of a pickup truck in September 2016 in Aiken. Wells was arrested six months later on a murder charge and has been in jail ever since.
Wells was tried in February 2019 and August 2020, and the jury deadlocked both times.
Wells’ lawyer thanked prosecutors for dismissing the case.
“This should have been done a long time ago, and I’m sorry to say that it’s taken us this long to get it done,” defense attorney John Delgado said.
Charges against Wells’ mother and a friend for helping him after the killing also have been dismissed.
