The following was released on Monday by Captain Cliff Arnette of the Dillon County Sheriff’s Office:
On February 5, 2016, two people were taken into custody by the Dillon County Sheriff’s Office in reference to the vehicle and body of Jamal Smith that was recovered from the Little Pee Dee River at Harllee’s Bridge in the Little Rock Community of Dillon County on January 28, 2016.
The two people in custody are Christopher Green, age 33, of Dillon and Ervin Stanley, age 53, of Dillon. The two are charged with murder, possession of a weapon during violent crime and criminal conspiracy in the death of Jamal Smith.
On January 28, the Dillon County Sheriff’s Office along with Dillon County EMS and Dillon Rescue were dispatched to Harllee’s Bridge in reference to a vehicle in the river.
During the initial phase of the call in was determined that a vehicle was in the water and divers with Dillon Rescue and South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR) did dive and located a vehicle in the river that was fully submerged, and divers were able to retrieve a tag number from the vehicle. At that time the Dillon County dispatch center was contacted to run the tag for ownership, and the vehicle came back registered to a Jamal Smith from Rowland, North Carolina.
Once the vehicle’s ownership was determined, we had our dispatch to contact North Carolina to see if they would have an officer go to the address where the vehicle was registered to make contact with the owner of the vehicle to see if they knew anything about their vehicle being in the river.
Divers entered the passenger compartment to check for anyone being inside and no one was located in the passenger compartment of the vehicle. We were later contacted by our dispatch that no contact was made by North Carolina authorities at the residence of the owner of the vehicle.
The recovery of the vehicle was called off until morning due to the safety of the divers and other responders at the scene as night fall had approached and the extremely cold water.
Later that night we were contacted by the family of Jamal Smith, and they were unable to find or make contact with Jamal.
After receiving that information. the circumstances changed so we went back to the river to try to recover the vehicle out of the water to do a check of the vehicle out of the water. After the towing service pulled the vehicle out of the water ,the vehicle was checked and a body was located in the trunk.
SLED crime scene was called to assist in processing the vehicle.
The body was later identified as Jamal Smith of Rowland, North Carolina.
During the course of the investigation investigators with the Dillon County Sheriff’s Office interviewed individuals and obtained evidence that led the Sheriff’s Office to a residence on Pine Street in Dillon on Friday, February 5, 2016, where a search warrant was executed for evidence related to this crime.
The Dillon County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by Sled and the Dillon County Coroner’s Office with the investigation.
The victim Jamal Smith had been shot and placed in the trunk of his vehicle and taken to Harllees’s Bridge, where his vehicle was put in the river.
Sheriff Major Hulon would like to thank Dillon County EMS, Dillon Rescue, Dillon County Fire Department, South Carolina Highway Patrol, DNR, Dillon Police Department, Rowland (N.C.) Police Department and officers with the Dillon County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance and support during this case as each agency provided valuable resources and assistance.
The lead investigators in this case are Allan Rogers and Reggie Thompson.