Thursday, June 20, 2013

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Family says loved one wrongfully charged
by Crystal Walker
Posted: 11.20.2008 at 6:09 PM
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Damon Scott
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The family of a man accused of murder is claiming he is wrongfully charged.

Damon Scott is accused of killing 46-year-old James Simmons.

Richland County Deputies say Simmons and Scott got into an argument at a bar in Eastover on Friday night. Deputies say Scott assaulted Simmons, who later died in the hospital. Damon Scott’s sister, Nicole, was at the bar with her brother on Friday night.

“He punched him in his face. He didn't sit up there and just constantly just attack this man and beat him, beat him and beat him,” Scott said.

Nicole says Damon only hit Simmons once and he seemed OK.

"He got back up, he sit in the chair. The police and the ambulance come in,” Nicole said.

Richland County investigators say EMS workers treated Simmons at the Eastover bar early Saturday morning, but he refused to go to the hospital. On Sunday, his family took him to the hospital and Monday he passed away.

"I don't think Damon should be charged with murder. I think he should be charged with assault because he did assault him,” Nicole said.

Nicole doesn’t believe her brother’s hit was the fatal blow, but investigators insist that’s what caused Simmons' death.

“Both families are in a lot of pain and we understand that, but the evidence shows that the blow that the suspect gave the victim was the cause of death,” Sergeant Kim Myers from the Richland County Sheriff's Department said.

Now both the victim and suspect’s families are left picking up the pieces of a tragedy.

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