A York County judge granted pretrial release Tuesday, Sept. 15, to a 14-year-old boy charged with murder in a Fort Mill park shooting.

Judge David Guyton ruled the boy can stay with family under house arrest and GPS monitoring, the Rock Hill Herald reported. The Herald was the only media organization at the York County Family Court hearing.

The boy, a Rock Hill resident who was 13 when charged, faces counts of murder, armed robbery, conspiracy and weapons offenses. Johnny Wayne Martin Cook, 21, of Chester, was shot several times while in his car at the park in August 2025. The Herald described the killing as the first homicide in years in Fort Mill.

Co-defendant Jalen Daquavious Thames, 18 at the time of the killing, died Sept. 2 of natural causes after a year in jail on murder and other charges, prosecutor Erin Joyner said at the hearing. Thames can no longer be prosecuted.

Defense attorney Melissa Inzerillo, the 16th Circuit deputy public defender, argued Thames was the only witness who placed blame on the younger boy. She said his death "further weakens the state's case" against her client. Inzerillo told the court Thames had a gun the day of the killing and made social media videos firing the victim's gun before his arrest. In previous hearings, prosecutors said Thames' palm print was found on the car window from the direction where the fatal shots were fired.

Joyner conceded Thames' death changed the case significantly but argued the boy remains a danger to the public, citing his disciplinary record before the killing and while in detention.

Cook's father, Johnny Cook, addressed the judge directly, saying his son was scared when he was shot seven times and that there is no reason for the defendant to go home. "He's a danger to society, I don't care what nobody says," Cook told the court.

Guyton warned the boy that any violation of release conditions, including contact with potential witnesses, would send him back to detention. Prosecutors plan to hold hearings later in 2026 to seek transfer of the case to adult court, Joyner said. A murder conviction as an adult in South Carolina carries a mandatory minimum of 30 years. In juvenile court, any sentence ends at age 22.

The Fort Mill-Tega Cay Times is not naming the defendant because of his age.