State v. Travontae J. Mitchell

Court of Appeals of South Carolina·Decided August 12, 2026·No. 2023-001323·Unpublished

Opinion

THIS OPINION HAS NO PRECEDENTIAL VALUE. IT SHOULD NOT BE CITED OR RELIED ON AS PRECEDENT IN ANY PROCEEDING EXCEPT AS PROVIDED BY RULE 268(d)(2), SCACR.

THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA In The Court of Appeals

The State, Respondent,

v.

Travontae Jahwan Mitchell, Appellant.

Appellate Case No. 2023-001323

Appeal From Horry County

Benjamin H. Culbertson, Circuit Court Judge

Opinion No. 2026-UP-405

Heard December 9, 2025 – Filed August 12, 2026

AFFIRMED

Appellate Defender Joanna Katherine Delany, of Columbia, for Appellant.

Attorney General Alan McCrory Wilson, Deputy Attorney General Donald J. Zelenka, Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General Melody Jane Brown, and Assistant Attorney General Tommy Evans, Jr. all of Columbia, and Solicitor Jimmy A. Richardson, II, of Conway, all for Respondent.

PER CURIAM: Travontae Mitchell (Appellant) appeals his convictions for murder and three counts of attempted murder for his involvement in the death of Jamie Johnson. Appellant was one of six young men the State alleged had ambushed Johnson and his passengers. He and each of his codefendants were sentenced to forty-five years imprisonment for murder and concurrent sentences of thirty years for each count of attempted murder. Appellant appeals his convictions and sentences, alleging that the trial court erred in sentencing him without individualized consideration as a juvenile, denying his motion for a mistrial, admitting mugshots of Appellant and his codefendants, and admitting a statement from a non-testifying codefendant. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

On September 12, 2020, Johnson was driving his Chevrolet Tahoe to a local Conway gas station accompanied by passengers Jacob Hill, Britney Milam, and Orlin Lopez. A Chevrolet Caprice driven by Don Brown and occupied by Appellant, Tronahz Whittington, Che Ransom, Shamontae Graham, and Mikkie McLeod began following them. Whittington spotted Johnson in the Tahoe and told Brown to follow him so they could rob him. When the victims stopped at a stop sign, Brown drove the Caprice in front of the Tahoe, blocking its movement. Whittington, along with three or four other young men who were seated in the back, got out of the Caprice and began shooting at the Tahoe. Hill, Milam, and Lopez ducked down once the shooting began. Johnson attempted to put the Tahoe in reverse, but when he turned to look behind him, he was shot in the back of the head and died at the scene.

The Tahoe was hit by two bullets. One went through the windshield—killing Johnson—and the other hit the engine block. Multiple shell casings were found at the scene. Two casings were from an automatic rifle, and seven were fired from two different .9mm handguns.

All six of the men in the Caprice were charged with murder and attempted murder. Whittington was tried first and found guilty. He was sentenced to forty-five years for murder and concurrent thirty-year sentences for each count of attempted murder. Appellant was sixteen at the time of the shooting and was waived up from family court to general sessions court. Appellant, Ransom, and Brown were tried together. 1 The jury found all three guilty of all charges and the trial court

1 At the time of Appellant's trial, charges were still pending against Graham and McLeod.

sentenced them to forty-five years for murder and concurrent thirty-year sentences for each count of attempted murder.2

Appellant made a motion for the court to reconsider his sentence and a motion for a new trial. After a hearing on the post-trial motions, the trial court denied the motions and this appeal followed.

LAW/ANALYSIS

I. Sentencing

Appellant argues that the trial court erred in sentencing him without giving him individualized consideration and without considering the mitigating factors of youth set forth in Aiken v. Byars, 410 S.C. 534, 765 S.E.2d 572 (2014).

During sentencing, Appellant's attorney argued:

When this occurred, my client was 16 years old. He was a juvenile. As we know, people's brains aren't fully developed until they're at least 23, 24 years old . . . . He got wrapped up in a situation that absolutely got out of hand . . . . He was just trying to get home, riding with his brother, and the situation got out of control. Your Honor, he has been incarcerated now since 2020. He's not seen his family since then . . . . As you're well aware, the primary shooter, the person that came up with this plan, was sentenced to 45 years just a few months ago . . . . My client is now 19. And as you know, any sentence you can impose here today, even the mandatory minimum, is longer than my client's even been on this planet . . . . We'd respectfully ask if you would consider the minimum on this case and show any kind of leniency you can, Your Honor.

Appellant's mother was the only witness called in mitigation. She told the court Appellant was not a bad child, that he played baseball, and that he had been baptized. The trial court told Appellant that he did not see any justifiable reason to

2 All of the codefendants, including Tronahz Whittington, were teenagers at the time of the shooting.

impose a different sentence in his case from what Whittington received, and he gave all three codefendants the same sentence as Whittington.

Appellant filed a motion for sentence reconsideration without citing any grounds for the motion. At the sentence reconsideration hearing, his attorney emphasized Appellant's young age at the time of the shooting, his waiver from family court, and the inconsistencies in the trial testimony. No witnesses testified in mitigation, and counsel made no mention of Aiken or the mitigating factors of youth.

"When considering whether a sentence violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments, the appellate court's standard of review extends only to the correction of errors of law." State v. Mack, 441 S.C. 526, 535, 894 S.E.2d 820, 825 (Ct. App. 2023) (quoting State v. Finley, 427 S.C. 419, 423, 831 S.E.2d 158, 160 (Ct. App. 2019)). "[T]his court will not disturb the circuit court's findings absent a manifest abuse of discretion." Id. "[A]buse of discretion occurs when the circuit court's finding is based on an error of law or grounded in factual conclusions without evidentiary support." Id. at 535–36, 894 S.E.2d at 825.

"The United States Supreme Court sequentially has interpreted the protections of the Eighth Amendment to hold that juveniles are entitled to different treatment in sentencing when the death penalty or a life-without-parole sentence is imposed." Jones v. State, 440 S.C. 14, 26, 889 S.E.2d 590, 597 (2023). In Roper v. Simmons, the United States Supreme Court held that sentencing juvenile offenders (under the age of eighteen) to death violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. 543 U.S. 551, 578–79 (2005). The Court expanded upon Roper in Graham v. Florida, where the Court held that life sentences for juveniles who had committed nonhomicide crimes were unconstitutional. 560 U.S. 48, 82 (2010). Miller v. Alabama further held that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) for minors violated the Eighth Amendment. 567 U.S. 460, 470 (2012).

Although South Carolina does not mandate an LWOP sentence for murder, our supreme court nonetheless held that Miller established "an affirmative requirement that courts fully explore the impact of the defendant's juvenility on the sentence rendered" before sentencing a juvenile to LWOP. Aiken, 410 S.C. at 543, 765 S.E.2d at 577. The court held that sentencing judges may still sentence a juvenile to LWOP, but they may do so only after an individualized hearing where the judge considers

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