A Richland County grand jury indicted Rick Chow on a charge of murder following the June 2023 shooting death of Cyrus Carmack-Belton, a 14-year-old who had been inside Chow's Columbia convenience store [1]. Prosecutors alleged that Chow, after suspecting Carmack-Belton of shoplifting, pursued the teenager on foot before shooting him in the back as he fled, and that the killing was accompanied by malice sufficient to sustain a murder conviction [1]. The case proceeded to the Richland County Court of General Sessions, where it drew sustained attention from civil rights advocates, gun-law scholars, and community members in the Columbia area [1].
Trial lasted four days [1]. The prosecution argued that Chow initiated the pursuit, escalated the confrontation, and shot a fleeing minor who posed no immediate threat to anyone [1]. Defense counsel Joseph McCulloch countered that Chow fired to protect his son, who was present during the encounter, and that South Carolina's self-defense framework, which includes stand-your-ground principles, justified the use of lethal force under those circumstances [1]. The jury deliberated for approximately eight hours before returning a verdict of not guilty on the murder charge on June 1, 2026 [1].
No sentencing posture arises from the acquittal. The criminal proceeding is concluded, and double jeopardy bars re-prosecution on the same charge.
Carmack-Belton's family has publicly stated its intention to file a civil lawsuit against Chow, a forum in which the burden of proof is preponderance of the evidence rather than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard that governed the criminal trial [1]. The verdict and the circumstances underlying it have renewed public debate in South Carolina over the application of self-defense statutes to situations involving fleeing individuals and over whether race played a role in both the shooting and the outcome at trial [1].