@meghannmcuniff: In testimony last week, an investigator suggested that someone may have removed money from a 14-year-old boy shot to death by a gas station owner in Columbia, South Carolina. Taima Jordan is the now-retired Richland County Sheriff's Office investigator who spoke with Rick Chow after Chow killed Cyrus Carmack-Belton on May 28, 2023, outside the Shell gas station he owned in Columbia, South Carolina. In cross-exam, Chow's lawyer Shaun Kent questioned Jordan about Cyrus going into the store "with no money, an empty book bag, and a loaded firearm, and you're telling this jury there was nothing suspicious about that?" "Well, we don't know they didn't have any money on him at all. There was no money found on him," Jordan said. Jurors already heard testimony about Chow's wife picking up a shoe that Cyrus lost when he was running and taking it back to the gas station. "Again, my question was, you're telling this jury there's nothing suspicious about that?" Kent asked. "Absolutely not," Jordan answered. "And that is normal when that happens?" Kent asked."It depends on who you are ad what your normal is?" Jordan answered. He said he can't "speak on behalf of him" but "I would probably do the same thing. I don't think there's anything wrong with that." "You would go into a business with an empty book bag, a loaded firearm with a bullet in the chamber with no money in your pocket?" Kent asked. "No, you asked me about the money," Jordan answered. "What you said to this jury right now is you probably would have done the same thing, and my question was, as in going into a business with an empty book bag and a firearm, picking water in and out of a cooler with no finances or no money on you to pay for it. That's something that you would have done, is what your testimony was?" Kent asked. "To that question, no," Jordan answered. "And it's your testimony that that behavior that I just described was nothing that caused you any concern whatsoever?" Kent asked. Jordan said no one knew about any of that until after Cyrus was shot. "That was determined or found out after the fact, as far as the book of bag being empty and him having a firearm," Jordan said. "Well, officer, when we talk about investigation, one of the things we talked about is we investigate the entire thing, the totality of the circumstances. We don't piecemeal investigation, do we?" Kent asked. "We do not," Jordan answered. "And so we investigate the totality of the circumstance. So, are you telling me you did not investigate the totality?" Kent asked. Jordan said at the time Cyrus was in Chow's store "there was no indication that he had a firearm, that the book bag was empty, and that he had no money. No one knew that." Attorneys will give closing arguments today (Monday, June 1) in Richland County Circuit Court in Columbia, then jurors will deliberate. #law #crime #court

Meghann Cuniff

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Monday 01 June 2026 12:35:06 GMT