James Patrick Kinard was 39 when he was shot to death on the night of October 19, 2018, in the Hazzard Circle area of Ridge Spring, Saluda County, South Carolina. Officers found him mortally wounded by gunfire; investigators described the killing as not random after a witness reported seeing two men near Kinard shortly before the shooting, known locally by the nicknames Man and DJ.

Investigators later identified those street names in a SLED photo lineup as 24-year-old Earl Eugene Valentine Jr. and 30-year-old Derrick Cyrus Jr. A .38-caliber casing was recovered from a trash can outside Cyrus’s residence, and forensic testing showed the fatal bullet was consistent with a .38 special or .357 round. Warrant affidavits say multiple people told investigators Valentine admitted the killing and that Valentine believed Kinard was cooperating with police; other statements attributed to Cyrus placed Valentine as the shooter and suggested Cyrus helped him afterward.

In February 2024 SLED charged Valentine with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, and charged Cyrus with accessory after the fact to murder; both were booked into the Saluda County Detention Center. No verdict in Kinard’s killing has been reported. Did anyone in Ridge Spring know James Kinard or see activity on Hazzard Circle the night of October 19, 2018?