Son shoots, kills dad during New Year’s fireworks, SC officials say. Now he’s sentenced

A man waited until New Year’s fireworks went off to shoot and kill his dad — and now he has been sentenced in South Carolina, prosecutors said.

James “Jim” Bell — a 76-year-old lawyer who was married 50 years — reportedly was shot in the head as he slept. His wife found him “unresponsive in his recliner” on New Year’s Day 2021, according to WCBD and Dorchester County prosecutors.

Now, more than two years later, Bell’s son has been ordered to serve life in prison. The First Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office in an Aug. 10 news release didn’t list attorney information for the son, identified as 51-year-old Jason Bell.

“This was a case that rocked the small, but mighty, community of St. George,” Solicitor David Pascoe wrote. “It has been remarkable to see how the town rallied around this family in the face of this tragedy. We are grateful that the victim’s wife, who was also the defendant’s mother, was able to persevere and testify in this trial.”

The case dates to Dec. 31, 2020, when prosecutors said Jim Bell was shot with his own gun overnight as “celebratory fireworks” were going off nearby.

“The defendant originally attempted to persuade law enforcement that the victim died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” officials wrote. “That theory would quickly fall apart when it was determined that a revolver found underneath the victim’s body was fired twice.”

St. George police later interviewed Jason Bell, who prosecutors said “admitted he drank an entire bottle of champagne or rum before noon on that day, removed the weapon from a drawer in the home while his parents were out for lunch, loaded the weapon, and then planned to shoot his father that evening.”

Bell was arrested and charged with murder in January 2021, WCBD reported at the time.

Now, years after Jim Bell’s death, prosecutors said a jury has found his son guilty in the case. His son was given a life sentence without a chance for parole.

St. George is roughly 50 miles northwest of Charleston.

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