Alleged SC hitman found dead in Kershaw County jail just before his trial’s last day

A man on trial for murder in Kershaw County was found dead in his jail cell the night before closing arguments in his case were set to begin on Friday morning.

Corey Perrine, 30, of Lexington County, was found dead at the Kershaw County Detention Center late Thursday night, the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office announced Friday.

Perrine had been on trial at the Kershaw County Courthouse in downtown Camden this week in the 2019 murder of Cletis “Eddie” Baker, 44.

Since Tuesday, 5th Circuit prosecutors had put up 14 witnesses in their effort to portray Perrine as a hit man who had carried out a killing to avenge allegedly stolen drugs. Perrine had acted at the behest of a drug trafficking group ringleader, Daniel Shannon, an inmate at the S.C. Department of Corrections, according to prosecutors. Shannon is serving a life sentence for murder, as well as sentences for other crimes including arson and armed robbery, according to the state corrections department inmate database.

Prosecutors said Joey Edwards, a co-defendant in the Perrine case but who was not on trial last week, led Perrine to a Kershaw County rural house in September 2019, where Perrine shot Baker, who had been asleep.

Edwards woke up Baker and then Perrine shot him with a pistol six times, including a final shot at close range between the eyes, Edwards testified earlier in the trial. Edwards has pleaded guilty in a federal drug case and is awaiting trial in the Baker killing.

Baker’s body was later found by the side of Damascus Church Road in a rural Kershaw County area north of Camden, witnesses testified.

Among the witnesses were three current and former South Carolina Law Enforcement Division crime lab agents, who offered up testimony on ballistics, DNA and elements of the crime scene.

A press release from the solicitor’s office said the trial had been expected to conclude Friday and go to the jury for a verdict.

Perrine’s court-appointed defense attorney, Scott Hayes, said Friday afternoon he arrived at the Kershaw County courthouse in downtown Camden that morning to learn, to his dismay, that Perrine was dead.

“Corey was steadfast in his innocence of the murder and looked forward to clearing his name,” Hayes said. “He was confident a Kershaw County jury would see that the state did not present evidence that would result in proving his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Hayes said there was no forensic evidence such as fingerprints or DNA that directly linked his client to the crime. Even a gun found in an abandoned car of a girlfriend of Perrine’s had no evidence tying him to the weapon, Hayes said.

Hayes said witnesses have told authorities that Perrine was in good spirits Thursday night and believed things were going well with him.

Kershaw County Coroner David West said that an autopsy was done Friday on Perrine’s body, but no results were yet available. Toxicology tests were done, but it may take weeks or longer to get results back, West said.

On Thursday in the courtroom, nothing seemed amiss with Perrine, who sat quietly with his attorney at the defense table. Perrine also stood and, escorted by officers, walked before the jury box and showed jurors tattoos on his neck and right arm. Testimony about the tattoos had been introduced earlier by prosecutors.

Outside the jury’s presence, Judge Robert Hood noted that Perrine had behaved well during the trial.

SLED is investigating Perrine’s death, the solicitor’s office said.

Prosecutors in the case were Dale Scott, Curtis Pauling and Michael Bradbury.

“The solicitor’s office is confident that all the testimony in this particular case certainly proved Mr. Perrine’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Scott, the lead prosecutor.

Perrine had been brought to South Carolina from a North Carolina state prison, where he was serving a nine-year sentence for 2019 crimes against two men including assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, kidnapping and robbery with a dangerous weapon, prosecutors said.

Had Perrine been found guilty of murder, it would have been up to Judge Hood to sentence him to from 30 years to life.