Two women were killed and a man was arrested. Now SC prosecutor says charges are dropped

The charges have been dropped against a man who was arrested after two women were killed in 2021, according to the 8th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. Now another man will be arrested in the double murder.

Cassius Marcello Broadwater, 23, had two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime dismissed Thursday, Solicitor David Stumbo said in a news release.

The charges were dropped after new forensic evidence and witness statements were brought to light in recent weeks of the investigation, the solicitor’s office said.

Information about the new evidence was not available, but Greenwood Police Chief T.J. Chaudoin said Broadwater was cleared after his office received forensic work from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Index-Journal reported.

“All defendants charged with crimes in the 8th Judicial Circuit are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law,” Stumbo said in the release.

It was not clear if the new forensic evidence and witness statements were used in arrest warrants for Quindaris Keondre Washington, who is now charged with the murder of Ariel Beeks and Kyndall Curry, the solicitor’s office said.

The 21-year-old Washington was already being held at the Greenwood County Detention Center on multiple charges, including a count of murder from a January 2022 arrest in a separate shooting, records show. The victim, 21-year-old Quinton Payne, was shot multiple times and died on June 12, 2021, at a Greenwood home, according to the Greenwood County Coroner’s Office.

That was a little more than two weeks before Beeks and Curry were killed.

On June 28, 2021, the bodies of the 23-year-old Beeks and 22-year-old Curry were found sitting inside a parked car in the 200 block of Jones Street, the coroner’s office said. They were shot multiple times while inside the parked vehicle, according to the coroner’s office.

Police said Beeks and Broadwater shared a child, and authorities initially believed the shooting was the result of domestic violence, WHNS reported.

Information about how Washington was connected to Beeks and Curry’s deaths was not available, and Stumbo said there will be no further comment on the case because his office is prosecuting the new charges.

While Broadwater’s charges connected to Beeks and Curry’s deaths were dismissed, he remains behind bars at the county jail, the solicitor’s office said. Jail records show Broadwater is being held on multiple drug charges, but they are unrelated to the murders of Beeks and Curry, according to the solicitor’s office.

Beeks was survived by her daughter and parents among other family members, according to her obituary.

Curry was survived by her mother and brother, and other family members, her obituary said.

Memorial services for both women were held in July 2021, the Robinson-Walker Funeral Service said.