Kelbrez Antrial Stringer (Seventh Circuit Solicitor's Office). Background: The Spartanburg County Courthouse (Google Maps).
A 24-year-old man in South Carolina will spend several decades behind bars for trying to kill his girlfriend, shooting at the victim more than 40 times after she confronted him about using her car to cheat on her with another woman.
Circuit Court Judge Patrick C. Fant, III on Wednesday ordered Kelbrez Antrial Stringer to serve 35 years in a state correctional facility over the attack, prosecutors announced. Fant handed down the sentence after a jury found Stringer guilty on one count each of attempted murder, possessing a weapon during the commission of a crime, discharging a firearm into a dwelling, and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle.
According to a news release from the Office of the Seventh Circuit Solicitor, Stringer on the afternoon of April 17, 2023, borrowed his then-girlfriend's car while she was at work. When she finished her shift, Stringer used the girlfriend's car to pick her up. While they were driving home to Cowpens, a town in Spartanburg County, another woman called Stringer's girlfriend "alleging Stringer had engaged in infidelity that day and used her vehicle to do so."
"A verbal argument between Stringer and his girlfriend ensued. Once they arrived in Cowpens, she had Stringer exit her vehicle so she could continue home alone," the release states. "As his girlfriend began to drive away, Stringer fired a handgun toward her vehicle over forty (40) times."
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
Authorities said that several shots struck a nearby home while nine of the shots hit the girlfriend's vehicle. One of those bullets struck Stringer's girlfriend in the neck, but she managed to continue driving away from him before calling 911.
Emergency medical personnel responded and transported the girlfriend to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center for emergency care.
In an interview with investigators, Stringer initially claimed that an "unknown person" had been following the couple and then "shot at him while he ran away." However, an eyewitness testified at trial that only one car — the one belonging to Stringer's girlfriend — was the only vehicle on the road at the time of the shooting.
Prosecutors said Stringer had previously been convicted on charges of breach of peace, petit larceny, and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, among other crimes. Prior to the start of his trial for shooting his girlfriend, Stringer pleaded guilty in a separate case to charges of being a convicted felon in possession of a weapon. He was sentenced to five years in prison, with the sentence running concurrent to his 35-year sentence.
"The victim was brave to face her attacker in open court and fight to make sure this dangerous person would go to prison for a long time," Assistant Solicitor Eddie Hunter, who prosecuted the case said in a statement.
Follow Law&Crime:
