North Carolina man sentenced for role in 2018 murder in Horry County apartment complex
A North Carolina man was sentenced to eight years in prison on Wednesday for his role in connection to a 2018 murder in Horry County, according to the 15th Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Matthew Isaiah Rivera, of Fayetteville, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to a murder in connection to an event that took place July 10, 2018 at a Myrtle Beach-area apartment complex.
Marquis Shawn Brown, who is charged with murder in connection to the case, is incarcerated in Cumberland County, North Carolina on drug dealing and weapons charges. He was released on bond here and his murder charge is pending.
Gunshots were heard just after midnight on July 10, witnesses told Horry County and Myrtle Beach police dispatchers. But officers didn’t discover the dead body until more than five hours later, when they found 42-year-old Mark Verhasselt dead from a gunshot wound in a parking lot at Magnolia North apartments , according to police reports and the Horry County Coroner’s Office.
A Horry County 911 call log shows the Myrtle Beach Police Department advised they had two callers report shots fired about 12:30 a.m. in the area, along Wild Irish Drive, where the victim was found.
Wild Iris Drive is right along a jurisdictional split, with property southeast of the road, toward U.S. Highway 17, under patrol by MBPD, and property northwest, where the Magnolia North apartments are located, patrolled by HCPD.
Verhasselt’s body eventually was found in one of several parking lots across from a three-story condo complex.
