By Anna Harris
Published: Jun. 10, 2024 at 1:56 PM PDT|Updated: 36 minutes ago
Colleton County man sentenced in 2020 hunting incident that killed two
By Anna Harris
Published: Jun. 10, 2024 at 1:56 PM PDT|Updated: 36 minutes ago
COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) – A Colleton County man charged in the shooting deaths of a father and his daughter during a 2020 hunting trip entered guilty pleas before his case could go to trial.
Sean Peterson, 33, was charged with two counts of negligent use of a firearm while in engaged in hunting that resulted in death in the Jan. 1, 2020, shooting deaths of Kim Drawdy, 30; and Lauren Drawdy, 9.
Judge Maite Murphy sentenced Peterson Monday to a total of five years in jail and four years’ probation.
Peterson decided to enter his pleas after the state conducted a full jury selection and pre-trial motions.
Investigators said Peterson was out hunting with friends on New Year’s Day of 2020 in a wooded area on Barracada Road near Walterboro and he admitted at the time to shooting toward noise coming from the bushes, which he believed to be deer. But he fatally struck the Drawdys in that shooting.
Monday’s sentencing was filled with emotional testimony from both sides, each of which filled multiple benches.
“We don’t get to go teach Lauren how to drive. We don’t get to help her pick out a prom dress,” Kim Drawdy’s former sister-in-law, Brandy Branton, said. “We don’t get to float out on the river with Kim anymore. We don’t get to fish with him anymore. Nothing.”
Some, like Kim Drawdy’s cousin, Tina O’Quinn, could hardly speak.
“Kim was a very good person,” O’Quinn said. “Lauren was a beautiful little girl. None of this should have ever happened.”
Peterson himself acknowledged the family, who he says he has not spoken to since the deaths.
“I love y’all and it was not intentional,” Peterson said. “If I could take it back, I would.”
Before Peterson decided to plead during pre-trial motions, Murphy denied defense attorney Scott Harvin’s motion to exclude evidence of any prior hard drug use from the New Year’s party the night before the hunting trip. But she did approve his second motion to exclude the fact that Peterson had an expired hunting license at the time of the incident because it was not the proximate cause of death.
“Everybody was guilty in that situation,” Peterson’s mother, Valorie Jones, said. “Nobody was innocent in that situation. And everything that was done, everybody did that day.”
Murphy addressed some of the claims.
“Quite frankly, there was an innocent person out there, and that was Lauren,” Murphy said. “Mr. Harvin, I don’t buy for a second that the drugs had nothing to do with it. It was a part of the crime.”
State Solicitor Julie Kate Keeney claimed the hard drugs were used all night before the hunting incident, which would have affected his judgment. She said the number one rule of hunting is to know your target.
Harvin disagreed about the drug use, saying they stopped in the early hours of the morning and that was irrelevant to the hunting incident itself.
The maximum sentence Peterson could have received was six years in prison. The state asked for extended time but the defense asked for 90 days in jail, plus probation.
COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) – A Colleton County man charged in the shooting deaths of a father and his daughter during a 2020 hunting trip entered guilty pleas before his case could go to trial.
Sean Peterson, 33, was charged with two counts of negligent use of a firearm while in engaged in hunting that resulted in death in the Jan. 1, 2020, shooting deaths of Kim Drawdy, 30; and Lauren Drawdy, 9.
Judge Maite Murphy sentenced Peterson Monday to a total of five years in jail and four years’ probation.
Peterson decided to enter his pleas after the state conducted a full jury selection and pre-trial motions.
Investigators said Peterson was out hunting with friends on New Year’s Day of 2020 in a wooded area on Barracada Road near Walterboro and he admitted at the time to shooting toward noise coming from the bushes, which he believed to be deer. But he fatally struck the Drawdys in that shooting.
Monday’s sentencing was filled with emotional testimony from both sides, each of which filled multiple benches.
“We don’t get to go teach Lauren how to drive. We don’t get to help her pick out a prom dress,” Kim Drawdy’s former sister-in-law, Brandy Branton, said. “We don’t get to float out on the river with Kim anymore. We don’t get to fish with him anymore. Nothing.”
Some, like Kim Drawdy’s cousin, Tina O’Quinn, could hardly speak.
“Kim was a very good person,” O’Quinn said. “Lauren was a beautiful little girl. None of this should have ever happened.”
Peterson himself acknowledged the family, who he says he has not spoken to since the deaths.
“I love y’all and it was not intentional,” Peterson said. “If I could take it back, I would.”
Before Peterson decided to plead during pre-trial motions, Murphy denied defense attorney Scott Harvin’s motion to exclude evidence of any prior hard drug use from the New Year’s party the night before the hunting trip. But she did approve his second motion to exclude the fact that Peterson had an expired hunting license at the time of the incident because it was not the proximate cause of death.
“Everybody was guilty in that situation,” Peterson’s mother, Valorie Jones, said. “Nobody was innocent in that situation. And everything that was done, everybody did that day.”
Murphy addressed some of the claims.
“Quite frankly, there was an innocent person out there, and that was Lauren,” Murphy said. “Mr. Harvin, I don’t buy for a second that the drugs had nothing to do with it. It was a part of the crime.”
State Solicitor Julie Kate Keeney claimed the hard drugs were used all night before the hunting incident, which would have affected his judgment. She said the number one rule of hunting is to know your target.
Harvin disagreed about the drug use, saying they stopped in the early hours of the morning and that was irrelevant to the hunting incident itself.
The maximum sentence Peterson could have received was six years in prison. The state asked for extended time but the defense asked for 90 days in jail, plus probation.
Exposing the Big Game 