Prosecutors said a pistol passed inside a vehicle fired once and killed Gregory Johnson II.
CONWAY, S.C. — A gun handed from an uncle to his teenage nephew became the central fact in a Horry County manslaughter case that ended with an 18-year-old sentenced to prison.
The defendant, Damarion Nealy of Loris, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of Gregory Johnson II. Prosecutors said Nealy was 17 when Johnson, 20, was shot on June 1, 2025. The 15th Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office said Nealy received a sentence under the Youthful Offender Act, which limits his prison time to no more than five years. The resolution closed the criminal case without a trial and left the court record focused on one moment inside or near a vehicle: Johnson passed a pistol, Nealy handled it unlawfully because of his age, and the gun fired into Johnson’s head.
Johnson had been in the driver’s seat of a vehicle and had been firing a pistol at deer in nearby woods, prosecutors said. He then asked Nealy whether he wanted to take a shot. The question was followed by the handoff. Prosecutors said Nealy pointed the gun toward Johnson’s head with his finger on the trigger and applied enough pressure to discharge the weapon. The single shot struck Johnson. Nealy fled after the shooting, officials said, and Johnson died a short time later. Nealy later told police he was holding the gun when it fired and said it “went off.” James D. Stanko, a violent crimes assistant solicitor, said the evidence showed involuntary manslaughter was the proper charge. Stanko said the outcome was a fair resolution to tragic events.
The charge followed an investigation that began with a midnight call for help. Local reports from the first days after the shooting said officers were called around 12:30 a.m. to the Highway 905 area near Conway for shots fired. Officers found Johnson with a head wound near the back of a residence. Early reports said he was pronounced dead at the scene. Horry County officials later identified Johnson as the victim and said he had been shot while sitting in a vehicle outside his home. Nealy was arrested later that Sunday and booked at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center. At the time, authorities said he was charged with involuntary manslaughter and had a $100,000 bond. The early arrest account named the accused teen and the victim, but the detailed explanation of the gun handoff came later from prosecutors.
The case did not move forward as a murder prosecution. Prosecutors’ account did not describe a planned attack, a fight or a stated intent to kill. Instead, they said the fatal act came from unlawful and unsafe handling of a gun. The office pointed to Nealy’s age, the direction of the gun and the pressure on the trigger. Those details mattered because involuntary manslaughter depends on proof of conduct that causes a death without the intent required for murder. Nealy’s admission that he held the weapon when it fired became a key part of the case. The public record does not say whether forensic testing, witness statements or scene photographs were presented at the plea hearing. It also does not say whether Nealy gave a longer statement beyond acknowledging that he held the pistol when it discharged.
The sentence also reflected Nealy’s age at the time of the shooting. He was a minor when Johnson died, though he was 18 by the time he entered the guilty plea. South Carolina’s Youthful Offender Act allows certain young defendants to be sentenced within a separate framework rather than under a standard adult maximum for every case. Here, prosecutors said the sentence cannot exceed five years. That ceiling became the final penalty announced publicly after the plea. The solicitor’s office did not describe a restitution order, probation term or separate firearm condition in the public release. It also did not announce any remaining charges. With the plea accepted, the case moved from investigation and prosecution into custody and sentence administration.
Johnson’s life was described in family notices through work, plans and close ties. His obituary said he had started a landscaping business with his father so he could add to his income. It said he talked about rebuilding his grandmother’s old barn, renovating a shed and making additions to his house. Public memorial entries described him as hardworking and family oriented. Those details stood apart from the legal language of manslaughter and gave the case its loss beyond the charge name. Johnson was 20, only a few years older than Nealy, and the two were uncle and nephew. The family relationship made the prosecution’s account more painful: a moment that began with Johnson asking whether Nealy wanted to shoot ended with Johnson mortally wounded and Nealy leaving the scene.
The geography of the case also shaped the account. Highway 905 runs through a part of Horry County outside the beach crowds and closer to woods, homes and rural roads. The shooting was described in connection with deer, a vehicle and a residence, not a crowded public place. That setting meant the first facts came from police response and later from prosecutors, rather than from a large pool of public witnesses. Early reports said further details were limited. By the time of sentencing, prosecutors had filled in the immediate actions before the shot, but several points remained unaddressed in public summaries. They did not say what type of pistol was used, how many rounds had been fired before the fatal one or how long Nealy was away from the scene before police located him.
Nealy’s guilty plea settled the question of criminal responsibility in court. It did not settle the broader grief around Johnson’s death or erase the public record of a family encounter that turned fatal. The solicitor’s office said the facts supported the charge it pursued, and the judge imposed the youth offender sentence. Johnson’s name remains tied to memorial notices and family descriptions of unfinished work. Nealy’s name remains tied to a felony conviction from a shooting that prosecutors said began with a gun offered for a shot at deer.
As of May 7, 2026, the announced outcome is a guilty plea, a sentence capped at five years and no public notice of further court proceedings in the case.
Author note: Last updated May 7, 2026.