Camp Swamp Road Ep. 6: Your Side, Their Side and the Truth

To hear previous episodes of Camp Swamp Road, there is a link in this episode's description.

Click on that to go to a Spotify playlist of the whole series.

A word of warning.

This series contains descriptions of violence and strong language, including unbelieve

curse words.

Please be at best.

Previously on Camp Swamp Road.

He shot us first.

He shot at you?

He shot 100%.

You don't know what to think.

It's like the bottom of your whole being.

Your soul.

Everything just kind of drops out.

Well, I know what's fucked up to say, but I had a fucking blast.

I know what's fucked up, but I'm a fucked up person.

I was like, you're kidding me.

He's like, no, I'm not kidding you.

He's like, it just keeps getting more and more absurd.

You know, I'll be so glad when we get out of the podcast world.

You respect to you and into the courtroom so we can try this case.

The town of Conway, South Carolina is the Ori County seat.

It's where Scott Spivey's body was towed in his truck on the night he was killed.

It's where the County Council meets.

And it's where Jennifer Spivey Foley gave his speech, begging anyone in authority to look

at the evidence she'd uncovered.

And a red brick building in the town center is the County Courthouse.

Inside, a hearing is about to start.

It's a hearing for Jennifer's wrongful death lawsuit against Weldon Boyd and Bradley Williams.

Good morning.

Are y'all, I get you to a media.

Media.

Okay.

But we know not to bring our friends in.

All right.

Thank you.

I'll walk into the Ori County Courthouse with my producer Heather Rogers.

There's a lot of people coming in.

There's a big line at the security point.

Under South Carolina's standard ground law, individuals are entitled to total immunity.

If they can convince a judge, they killed in self-defense.

If the judge agrees, the killers can never be criminally charged or sued in civil court.

These proceedings are called an immunity hearing.

If the judge says an immunity should apply, Jennifer's lawsuit would be over.

And Boyd and Williams are forever shielded from criminal prosecution.

On the other hand, if the judge says immunity does not apply,

Jennifer's civil case can continue.

And Boyd and Williams could face criminal charges for the killing of Scott's body.

The stakes couldn't be higher.

I'm Valerie Boyline.

And this is Camp Small Brood, a series from the Journal.

Coming up, episode six.

Your side, their side, and the truth.

The courtroom is filled with observers, friends and family on both sides,

curious members of the public, and there's lots of media, both local and national.

To me, this sure feels like a trial, but there's no jury.

It's just a hearing in Jennifer's civil suit.

The only person whose opinion matters here is Judge Eugene C. Bubba Griffith.

The judge allowed me and the other reporters to sit in the jury box.

From here, I can see everything.

To my left is the judge.

To my right are the lawyers and the defendants.

Judge Griffith starts by letting each side make opening arguments.

Atturning Morgan Martin kicks things off for the defense.

That's Boyd and William side.

Martin argues that in the minutes before he died, Scott Spivy was a public danger.

It was Spivy who brought on the difficulty that led to his death.

Whatever he did on the road that day, he did for reasons that were satisfactory to himself and himself along.

He instigated it, he started it, he sustained it, he kept it up, and that was him.

Martin is wearing a pink tie and a matching pocket square.

He's comfortable in this courtroom.

It's kind of his second home.

Martin's known as a lion of the Ori County Bar.

He's defended Stannier ground cases many times before in criminal court.

The defense team valued that expertise, so they brought Martin into the civil case.

Everybody else had to react to Mr. Spivy that day.

He was, for lack of a better term like my mother would have said, he was a holy terror that day.

Martin argues that Boyd and William's didn't chase Scott Spivy.

They only followed him so they could relay his location to police.

And when they got to Camp Swamp Road, Spivy's the one who shot first.

This is a place where we come to find the truth and we want you to find it here.

We want all the facts to be laid out, any and everything.

Find nothing, show it off.

It's clear that the evidence will bring you back to the idea that this is not anything but a clear case of Stannier ground immunity.

It ain't close, I'll tell you.

I look over at Weldon Boyd.

He's wearing a white collared shirt and a blue sport coat.

On his wrist is a two-tone stainless steel and gold Rolex.

He looks confident.

The plaintiff's side is next.

Thank you.

Mark Tensley speaks on behalf of the Spivy family.

In his opening argument, he points to the calls that Boyd secretly recorded on his phone.

The calls where he spoke candidly and made light of the shooting.

In those recordings, Boyd himself calls the pursuit of Scott Spivy a chase.

Chase is not our word, John.

It's not the podcasters' words, it's not the media's word.

It is Weldon Boyd's word.

And he relentlessly, and this is what the testimonies were shipped.

He relentlessly chased Scott Spivy and murdered him.

The Boyd and William side argues that Scott Spivy was a violent road rager.

He was speeding, running cars off the road, and threatening other drivers with a gun.

Boyd and William's were just being good citizens by following him and calling them one-one.

But Tensley says, if Boyd chased Spivy, then it's reasonable to think that Spivy would have seen Boyd as the threat.

I have never seen a road rage case where the road rager was being chased by an innocent person.

When you see those videos on the Internet of Road Rage, some fools coming up and he's beating your side mirror off, he's pounding on your door.

He's trying to get you, not get away from you.

Tensley says that the judge will hear evidence that Weldon Boyd and Bradley Williams lack credibility.

Judges, they're not a standard ground case. This is a chase.

This is a chase, and you're going to hear, I don't know how many lines, I tried to count the lines.

You're going to hear over and over and over again about their lives. Both of them.

With the opening statements concluded, it's now time to present evidence.

Boyd and William's side, the defense, gets to go first.

The defense plays surveillance footage from boardwalk buildings.

The bar was got Spivy its been as afternoon on the day he died. Spivy was at the bar for five hours.

He ordered some food, seven-dollar lights, and eight shots of fireball cinnamon whiskey.

That the video shows that some of those drinks were for other people. Spivy then drove his black truck onto Highway 9.

The defense calls witnesses who were also on Highway 9.

They testified that they saw Spivy driving erratically and waving a gun.

From their perspective, it was Spivy who started the confrontation.

Then, the defense plays a 911 recording from a different witness on Highway 9.

She was the first person to call the police that day.

We would pretend to play the 911 called Blahjorn.

Correct?

If you've heard earlier episodes, this call should be pretty familiar.

There is a guy that is waving a gun in front of me trying to shoot at my car.

And the other one's the side of us. He's all over the road.

From the start of the police investigation, the witness account of Blay's Ward was crucial.

She said she saw everything. She saw Spivy with a gun on the highway.

She saw the road raging with Weldon Boyd, and she saw the shooting on Camp Smumpra.

He's jumping out of the truck. I'm turning the same way.

There is a truck behind him.

Oh my God!

What happened, ma'am? What happened, did you see that?

Ma'am, ma'am, call for a gun.

Boyd and Williams' lawyer describe her as, quote,

little blonde-headed Blay's Ward.

The fear in her voice is real.

And they want the judge to hear it.

The lawyers on both sides wanted Blay's Ward to testify in court.

But for months before the hearing, Ward had gone dark.

She didn't respond to phone calls, door knocks, or subpoenas.

But at the last minute, Ward surfaced.

Rather than coming into court to testify, though,

she agreed to sit for a recorded deposition.

That happened on Friday the 13th.

Just stays before the hearing started.

The entire video deposition was played in court.

On behalf of the Spavvy family,

Mark Tinsley asked the first questions.

And almost from the get-go, Ward starts backtracking

on the theme she told police.

Ward explained that from the moment she saw Spavvy's gun,

she was terrified.

And did that cause you to be afraid?

Very much.

In the deposition, Ward said that her fear caused her to perceive

things that weren't accurate.

For instance, in the Nama Monk Hall, Ward said

that she was trying to get away from Spavvy's truck.

But she realized later that that was impossible,

because she was driving behind him.

You agreed that at any time you could have pulled over

and stopped as you got away from whatever was in.

Then, Ward backtracks on a much bigger claim she'd made to police.

That she saw Scott Spavvy's shoot as gun at Weldon Boyd's truck.

Ward now says that she didn't actually see Spavvy fire as weapon.

What she saw was glass popping off Boyd's windshield.

And because she'd only seen Spavvy with a gun,

she assumed that he was the one shooting.

I said that, of course, I cannot take that away.

But I shouldn't have, because I put two and two together

and my head had to go back, seemed to go.

And I thought, oh, me and my head, what's two and four?

You can see the outcome, you're going to think,

oh, my gosh, the windshield's blowing out.

So, he's shooting.

That's what my mom was worried to.

And I took the gun and I said, hey, jump out of his truck.

Hold on, I didn't see that happen.

I did not see that happen.

I didn't see nobody get out of it.

It'll be, I just wouldn't like to live on that.

I may stop.

Boyd and William side, Long Saul Blaise Ward, as a critical witness.

However, her deposition doesn't seem to be a slam dunk.

But she did confirm something important.

That Spivey was aggressive and threatened her on the road.

Next, Boyd and William's lawyers shift to a different witness,

a man named Frank McMurrow.

McMurrow was driving down Camp Swamp Road toward Howie-Nan.

He passed Spivey's black truck right as he jumped out of it.

And he was next to Boyd's white truck, as the gunfire started.

Out of all the witnesses, Frank McMurrow had the closest view to the shooting.

His number one call is played in court.

And what's going on?

I know you said shots fired there.

Okay, so I got out of this truck using a black truck.

The guy with the truck was a pistol drawn, the fire was open.

He told the guy, do not follow me anymore.

The guy in the white truck had his gun drawn, pointed at him.

And the guy in the black truck kind of like moves his pistol

and the guy in the white truck has unloaded a complete magazine of the guy.

So I'll do this back window and I think you might have hit him.

In a written statement to police that night,

McMurrow said that he saw Spivey pointing his gun at Boyd.

But in a recorded deposition played in the courtroom, his story is different.

Yeah, I have no idea who fired first.

I didn't hear a single pop, but a bunch of pops.

I just heard pop-up-up-up-up-up-up-up-up-up-up-up.

McMurrow testified that he didn't see Spivey pointing his gun at Boyd's truck.

What he saw was Spivey's gun at his side, the slide-like back,

meaning it wasn't ready to shoot.

Then McMurrow said he saw Spivey move his arm.

What I saw was when his arm slightly moved to my side mirror.

All hell broke loose.

I don't even think he would have had the time to raise his gun

and chamber it in fire in that time.

I don't.

This account that Spivey had his gun pointed down

is consistent with what McMurrow said to police on Camp Swamp Road.

The only place it was different was in his written statement.

You know, I've been around guns my whole life.

I've took taking multiple training courses.

I've done multi things.

He was brandishing a firearm down by a side is what I think.

I didn't see any motion of him raising that up in aggressive manner

or pointing it or anything like that at all.

The McMurrow didn't see who shot first.

He also testified that before shots were fired,

he saw Boyd with his gun propped up on the dashboard, pointed at Spivey.

I didn't get nervous until I saw the gun and the white truck

because then I was like, oh.

This is a bombshell.

Boyd and Williams have said from the beginning

that Spivey pointed his gun at them and shot first.

But the Murrow's deposition casts serious doubt

on that version of events.

Boyd and Williams is attorney Morgan Martin

asked McMurrow about that.

Well, at either way, either as is written in your hand

and written statement or as you're telling us today,

you did see Mr. Staby at some point in time

raised his pistol and pointed towards the one front

before there was any shooting.

No, I never once said I saw Spivey.

Plenty of pistol at the white truck.

Like I said, he moved his arm in an upward position

as all I saw.

I never saw him pulling a gun at that white truck ever.

In court, Boyd and Williams' lawyers move on

to the aftermath of the shooting.

They call a witness to the stand.

Ori County police officer, Carrie Higgs.

He was the first officer to arrive at Camp Smump Road.

Can you sort of walk the judge through

what you observed when you first got on scene,

what you did?

When I got on scene, it was a little hectic with traffic.

Camp Smump is a route that people go to

and from a taper city.

The defense then plays a video on a TV monitor in the courtroom.

It's from Higgs' body cam.

Within seconds of Higgs' arrival,

Weldon Boyd comes running up to him.

We were calling.

I was taking pictures of his wife's play.

When I came in here, he got out of that truck.

Had his pistol.

He whacked it, ate it, and shocked.

Me and Ron were shooting back.

I mean, I can't even shoot him.

Why would he do that?

I'm not a cop.

They saw everything right there.

No, we were good.

He's a thief.

The body cam then shows Higgs walking up to Spavvy's truck.

I look over to the Spavvy family.

They're sitting in the front row of the gallery.

My eyes drift to Scott Spavvy's mom, Deborah.

As the video plays, her jaw drops.

She's seeing this footage for the first time.

Checking on the other vehicle.

Black Chevy, North Carolina, please.

Romeo, Charlie, one, five, three.

He walks up to the driver's side door,

which is falling open.

Scott Spavvy is slumped over the center console.

Sorry.

The officer prods Spavvy's back.

There's no response.

A few minutes later, Higgs goes around to the passenger side

of the truck and opens the door.

There's glass scattered across the seat and bullet holes

in the front windshield.

The camera catches the blood on Scott Spavvy's face.

Deborah has her eyes fixed on the screen.

She looks distraught.

Jennifer is turned away and weeping.

She shields her face with a tissue.

Unlike Deborah, Jennifer has watched this footage many times.

Cut along it as evidence for her lawyers.

By now, the hearing has gone on for two days.

And so far, there's been very little discussion

about Welden Boyd's state of mind,

and whether he was in fear for his life on Camp Swamp Road.

Neither of the men who killed Scott Spavvy has testified.

But the next day, that will change.

After the break.

Going forward and be small.

Welden Boyd takes the stand.

It's the boy.

Been a long time coming.

Can you tell your story, honey?

I'm ready.

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Weldon Boyd takes the stand on the third day of the hearing.

He's now wearing a gray suit.

And he's not wearing his Rolex anymore.

After he's sworn in, Boyd has questioned by his longtime lawyer,

a man named Ken Moss.

Now here's what I want you to do.

I'm going to ask you a lot of questions.

But the only two things when it's cold room that matters

are you and that job.

Moss questions Boyd for about four hours.

And they cover a lot, going back to Boyd's upbringing.

My father is a very direct boy man.

And I think I was raised the same way.

You know, you fall down and get up.

I don't want to hear you whine about it.

It happens.

It's going to happen again.

Do the right thing.

If you feel like something needs to be done, you do it.

Don't be lazy.

And put your family first.

Boyd is asked about his experience in the National Guard

and a deployment to Kuwait.

And he spends a lot of time talking about a custody battle

with his ex fiance.

After two hours, Boyd starts to tell his version

of what happened on Camp Swamp Road.

I'm driving along and I'm just finishing up a text message

and I sent that.

And as soon as I sent it, sometimes immediately after,

I hear my friend Bradley and excuse my language judge,

you know, what the fuck?

Boyd tells the court that on Highway 9,

Spivey appointed a gun at his friend Bradley Williams.

He testifies that Spivey break checked him,

forcing his truck off the highway.

I'm trying to catch up.

He's running fast.

And I try to get caught up because I want to get his license plate.

I want to get this information to the police.

Boyd testifies that as he drove and spoke to 911,

he had one hand on the steering wheel

and the other holding his phone.

Moss placed portions of the 911 call in court.

Then Spivey and Boyd turned on the Camp Swamp Road.

He's stopping.

He's stopping.

Hey, we're about to have a fucking shoot out there.

This dude's got a gun.

He's got a fucking gun.

According to Boyd, Spivey jumped out

and started walking towards his truck.

Then Spivey did what Boyd calls a matrix move,

dramatically swinging his arm towards Boyd with a gun in his hand.

Did you see Mr. Spivey?

Absolutely, Saul.

Mr. Spivey fired.

Were you afraid when he raided that?

I knew exactly what was going to happen next.

Boyd says he dropped his phone

and reached for the gun in his waistband.

Then he and William started shooting.

Do you have any doubt about what you saw on him?

But Mr. Spivey, there's no doubt.

In my mind, that man shot at us first.

Boyd's testimony is very different from Frank McMurros.

McMurros said that before the shooting started,

he saw Boyd gripping his gun with both hands,

propped on the dashboard, aimed towards Spivey.

Boyd testifies that that was impossible.

I believe, and I'm not going to call anyone, I'm not going to lie.

I believe McMurros, he did not see my gun

because I had the phone in one hand.

I had another hand on the steering wheel.

I was trying to go between Shifter, which is up here.

Shifter down here.

I don't know where a gun would have been in that moment.

Ken Moss also asked about what happened after the shooting.

He questions Boyd about the note written

by Ori County Police Officer, Damon Viscovy.

The note that read, act like a victim.

Camera.

Was it a surprise to you that some officers don't know.

Something that's known.

I didn't know what he meant by.

I was totally dumbfounded by it.

I mean, what do you say to that?

What do you do to that?

Act like a victim.

I mean, I am a victim.

I'm sitting here at a scene where someone just tried to shoot me

and we had to shoot back.

And you walk up and you just flash that in me.

And then I, I mean, immediately, I knew this was bad.

Because I didn't ask for that.

That is not what I needed you to do.

It's not what I asked you to do.

I don't know this guy.

He just walked up and did it to me.

Well, you've had a couple years of reflect on it.

You have any idea what the modern men do?

Now.

I have thought about this over and over and over.

This has made me look guilty of something that I didn't do.

And all I can do is just try to figure out why you did it,

why you felt let it do it.

The only thing that I have come up with is I was in a frantic state.

I was up.

I think my adrenaline was probably still going.

I'm pacing back and forth.

I'm trying to get people on the phone.

I don't know if maybe he just wanted me to calm down and just chill.

I don't know if he thought that he was helping.

I can't speak for why someone else did something.

All I can do is try to understand it, but I don't know why he did it.

Well, that does for Mr. Spock, you too.

You can't speak for what he's going to eat it.

Very much so.

In the days after the shooting,

he's on dozens of recorded phone calls talking about what happened

and making light of it.

In court, Ken Moss asked Boyd about that time period

and how he was feeling.

Boyd testifies that he was struggling.

Within the next days, I tried to get back to it.

I just tried to...

I got a business run.

I got to get back to it.

I don't know how I was supposed to work, but I got to do it.

I tried to do the work around errands.

What did you tell me in the past about what you learned

to own in the military?

What's that?

What have you been telling him, Bryce?

You've embraced us up.

When things are hard, you make a joke out of it

and get the hell out of it.

You keep going.

What's lying around crying about it going to change?

It's not going to change a damn thing.

What did you just...

You don't want you to do it?

Do you?

I tried to just be tough.

I just tried...

I made light of it.

I made jokes of it.

It just pushed it out.

We got to get past it.

Excuse my language.

I'm sorry.

There's stuff that needs to be done.

We got to keep going.

You can't...

It's no big deal.

You just keep going.

That's how I handled this.

And I made it about a week.

And then we'll have...

I crashed.

I had a panic attack.

I just fell.

I made it to my bed.

And I stayed in that bed for weeks.

I had to get up the shower.

And if I get right back in the bed,

I was broken.

I didn't work for eight...

Around eight to ten months.

I didn't even walk in my business.

I couldn't.

I mean, I just...

I broke.

And I'm still broken.

Boyd testifies that the things he said on the calls were dark humor.

A way to cope with stress.

My mother...

...was taken away.

Nervous?

Have you heard?

Most of them.

I mean, I have a hard time listening to them.

I can't...

I hate listening to them.

Nervous.

Nervous.

Disgusting.

After hours of testimony,

Kim Moss concludes by again asking Boyd about the shooting.

Did you and he didn't hurt that many?

No.

I gave you every chance, I...

I mean, you just got back in the truck.

No.

I gave you every chance, I...

I mean, you just got back in the truck.

Now, the Spivey's lawyer gets to cross-examine, Weldon Boyd.

Mark Tinsley zeros in on Boyd's credibility.

He asked about the act like a victim note.

Now, you remember your question,

why on earth, Damien Discovery would hand you that note.

And then you said that,

you were pacing back and forth.

You know what I mean?

Did you bring the picture?

You pacing back and forth,

and I don't know if you said you think you felt sorry for her or...

or what, but you couldn't fathom why he did it.

Tinsley placed some footage from Viscovie's body camp

before the officer writes the note.

The court sees Boyd sitting on his trailer,

talking on the phone.

In the video, Viscovie asked Boyd,

who was on the call.

Boyd was on the phone with his lawyer, Ken Moss.

Boyd hands his phone to Viscovie.

He...

he...

he is like...

stanza.

Yeah, they're...

they're...

they're...

okay, they're not on the call.

He said, Ken, this is Damien.

That's...

Yes.

About a minute after Viscovie talks to Boyd's lawyer,

he writes the note.

Who's that?

And he walks back to his car,

writes the note.

He comes back, he shows it to you.

Correct?

I believe that's what happened to us.

And Boyd's earlier testimony,

he said he was, quote,

dumbfounded by the act like a victim note

that he had no idea why Viscovie would show it to him.

But Boyd skipped over the detail

about the phone call with his lawyer.

Next, Tinsley moves on to another person

who Boyd called after the shooting.

Deputy Chief of the Ori County Police,

Brandon Strickland.

In a call, Strickland had promised Boyd

that he had, quote,

the right people coming to Camp Swamp Road.

Tinsley plays a call from the following day.

You're...

you're taking care of us.

Well, I appreciate that.

I mean, I don't even...

I don't think...

I mean, there's already people saying that I was shown

because he's dating my ex.

I mean, I don't even understand this shit.

I don't think that we got it.

Tinsley asks Boyd, quote,

why do you need to be taken care of

if it's a clear cut case of self-defense?

I answered a phone call and someone started talking to me.

I didn't request to be taken care of.

You actually did.

You picked up the phone immediately.

And you called him to come down there right away.

Right, we just heard that.

I did call him.

I didn't ask him to come.

I didn't ask for anyone to take care of me.

Another big question about Boyd's story

has to do with what was in his hands

when the shootout started.

Was it his phone as Boyd testified?

Or was it his gun as Frank McMurray testified?

Here, Tinsley plays a call

between Boyd and his mother

from two days after the shooting.

When he got back in his vehicle

and quit shooting with us,

we quit shooting.

You hear me still being on that one?

All that's recorded.

I made sure the phone was sitting right

between me and Bradley

when this was going on

so it could all be recorded.

Even the dispatcher is.

It sure was sitting right between me.

Right?

You dropped it.

You had to sit in there

so it would all be recorded

on 911 when you did this.

I dropped the phone.

It ended up there

and the shelf wound around it

ended up on the floor.

That's not what you told your mom, right?

We just heard it.

Tricks was not even there.

I dropped the phone.

It ended up in between me.

I was swimming the shelf on the ground

and it ended up on the floor.

Next, Tinsley confronts Boyd

about the calls he described as

dark humor.

Did you actually tell Bradley

that you had a fucking blast?

I did say that.

I don't recall the conversation.

It was.

If you do recall the night

and you got a tissue, don't you?

I said that everything is pretty terrible.

Which is the opposite

of having a fucking blast, right?

Yeah.

I truly believe that in these days

I was going for a traumatic event.

I believe I was having

a kind of a trial situation

and I was saying things

that just made no sense trying to code

and using dark humor, trying to code

but I'm not hinting at these things.

I'm eating them.

I'm telling you what these things were said.

Tinsley plays a call

between Boyd and Williams

where the two friends say

that they should commemorate the killing.

We're not going to find somewhere

on our body to put it to your job.

I'm doing it.

Then you're going to fucking do it.

I'm going to shit.

We're doing it.

Oh, yeah.

That works.

That works.

That works.

Dark humor.

Now that your color is dark humor, right?

No, it's always dark humor.

That's how I cope.

You give a like a little girl

when you cope with it?

I do give.

Especially when you have fun, right?

I've had a very difficult time

with all of this.

And this was filmed.

This was recorded

in the immediate days after

when I am still in the state

of confusion, sharp trauma.

I'm trying to cope best I can.

I use dark humor.

I have ups.

I have downs.

I'm crying.

I'm laughing.

I'm happy.

I'm alive.

I'm paranoid.

It is an up, down episode.

And from everything I've seen,

that is a totally normal situation

for someone to be in

after they go through something like that.

After about an hour of questioning void,

Tinsley stops

and looks up at Judge Griffith.

Judge,

all of these audio calls are indirect.

I've cited him.

I can do this.

For there's eight hours calls

and I can do this for hours.

I'm going to rely on what we've put in the record.

I don't think I need to play anymore

to demonstrate what you've seen here

is the case.

The cross examination

is over.

According to my reporting,

the Spavvy's legal team tried to make a deal

with Bradley Williams.

In exchange for testifying against void,

the family said they would ask the judge

to grant Williams immunity.

That means he would never risk being charged,

never risk going to prison.

But instead of taking the deal,

Williams takes the stand.

The first time I see this important again,

I mean, I explain it well.

I said other words,

but I'm going to skip that.

He was driving erratic.

He would jump in front of us,

he would start slamming on the brakes,

speed back off, slam on the brakes again,

he ran us off the road.

The old Tommy's doing this,

he's also pointing the gun at other people,

pointing the gun at us,

waving the gun off the window.

He was madness.

Williams backs up most everything that void testified to.

There was no chase.

Boyd was just relaying information to 911.

It was Scott Spavvy who caused the conflict

and Spavvy shot first.

Williams' lawyer, Morgan Martin,

asked the questions.

In the seconds before you were well and shoot the gun,

are you in fear for your life?

Absolutely.

Do you believe any reasonable man

would have been in fear for his life?

Yes, sir, I do.

And in your words,

why didn't you shoot when you shot?

Because I had no other option.

Other than what?

There was nothing else I could do.

I couldn't retreat.

I can't get out.

I'm there.

The Spavvy's lawyer, Mark Tinsley,

crossed examines Williams for about half an hour.

The thrust of the questioning

is that Williams wasn't just Boyd's passenger.

He was an active participant in the killing.

After Williams leaves the stand,

Boyd and Williams decide rest their case.

And after calling a couple of witnesses,

the Spavvy's side rests theirs.

Now, it's up to the judge.

All right, good time for a break.

We'll be right back.

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Y'all have asked for a brief summaries.

I think 10 minutes each is enough.

That's brief.

After a short break,

Judge Griffith makes it clear

that he's not interested in hearing long,

drawn out closing arguments.

Thank you, Judge. Please, the court.

The defense attorneys for Boyd and Williams go first.

After attorney Ken Moss delivers brief remarks,

Morgan Martin speaks.

I am going to make this abbreviated.

You'll be happy to hear.

Okay.

But there are some things that I do think are worth mentioning

and I would like for you to take with you

when you leave the courtroom.

First of all, there's a lot of...

This is Martin's final chance to convince the judge

that Boyd and Williams should have immunity

for the killing of Scott Spivy.

He says that Spivy's dangerous behavior on the road

is not up for debate.

The old low on malice used to say he was a guy

who was devoid of social duty

and fatally been on mischief.

And that's what happened.

If you want to get down to why this happened,

he caused it.

His fault.

He didn't withdraw.

Martin argues that what Boyd and Williams did

on Camp Swamp Road

is what any reasonable person would do.

Self-defense, self-preservation

is an instinct that comes from the gut.

You got it.

I got it.

Everybody in this room's got it.

The great bug on the hill

might extend the woods in the forest.

If he hears a staff of a twig, he's gone.

He's not going to let trouble get him.

First.

As Martin ends his remarks,

thank you, Jack.

Mark Tinsley starts to stand up.

The judge tells Tinsley to sit back down.

It's not clear what's happening.

The lawyers look confused.

Both sides had told me it could take weeks or even months

before the judge would issue his ruling.

But at this moment,

I realize that judge Griffith

doesn't want any time to deliberate.

He's already made up his mind.

I've listened to this whole thing.

This withdrawal,

or trying to get away from the thing,

driving over 115 miles an hour

and trying to get away,

sounds like a reason we're trying to withdraw.

I don't know what else you could have done

to get away from there.

That's getting away and that's withdrawing.

At least that's indicative of it to me,

and it wasn't working.

Anyway,

this is an immunity here.

Not a guilt or innocence.

It's not a money thing.

This is immunity.

And this,

not in fault in bringing on the difficulty.

That's tricky.

But credibility is huge here.

I look at Weldon Boyd.

He's leaning over the defense table.

His hands clutch together.

I have a really question to credibility.

Weldon Boyd.

I'll find his testimony,

lacking credibility in many places.

I'll give a few for instance,

I'm not going through them all,

but a few.

He called Mr. Strickland a deputy.

But he wasn't looking for help.

He called the lawyer looking for help.

I get that.

He called chief deputy,

but he wasn't looking for help.

It's not credible.

The differing descriptions of

spivings behave your outside the truck.

Compared with morals,

this description to these two's description,

totally different.

I don't know how you confuse those.

Even if you look at them very, very rare,

you can see a big difference.

And they're where you call it,

pursue, following,

I'm chasing,

they know.

Both guys in that truck know

that the guy they're following

had a rapid trying to keep up.

He's got a gun.

Stay by.

He's acting like a fool.

He was.

Bobby was acting like a fool that day.

No question about that.

The foolish paper don't require you to

foolishly act yourself.

And it seems that driving over 100 miles an hour

trying to keep up with the guy with the gun is foolish.

On the plaintiff's side of the gallery,

Jennifer and Deborah are sobbing.

They're holding each other tight.

The phone calls board made,

after the fact shows.

He is on.

I don't know, trying to get a story straight, maybe.

Trying to get help.

Trying to make certain that they're going to

be free and clear of any responsibility,

liability, responsibility,

whatever the words you want.

And he's certainly communicating to Mr. Williams

to get help in that regard.

So, here's what I want.

I find that Mr. Boyd requests for communities denied.

Weldon Boyd has lost his immunity.

The judge finds that South Carolina's

standard ground law does not apply in this case.

And with that, the powerful shield protecting Boyd

from civil penalties and criminal prosecution is gone.

In an interview, Boyd's lawyer, Ken Moss,

told me that he was disappointed in the judge's decision.

He said that Boyd's recorded phone calls

seemed to have overshadowed any evidence

that his client acted within the law.

As for Bradley Williams, his fate is still up in the air.

The judge says he needs to study the evidence a bit more.

Because Williams was a passenger,

he didn't necessarily choose to be there.

The judge Griffiths says he will make a decision

on Williams' immunity in the next few weeks.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes our hearing.

A few days later, I talked with Jennifer about the ruling.

It was so relieving to hear somebody else

come to that same conclusion to someone else to say

he's not credible.

Your story doesn't match.

It just was so much like,

this is what we've been saying all along.

Finally, somebody else sees it.

It's exactly what I've been saying from day one

to the police and to everybody else.

You know what they said?

The detective told me there's three sides to every story,

your side there, side of the truth.

What was told in court is the closest thing to the truth

that anyone is ever going to get.

And so after the hearing, what did y'all do?

We had our asleep in line of friends and family

that came to live, don't us afterwards.

And as we met our right downstairs,

we had lots of congratulations.

We went downstairs and,

and then me, mama, and my husband,

we loaded up in my car and I said,

I don't know you about y'all,

but I want some ice cream.

I think this deserves.

I think we deserve milkshakes after today.

So we went and got ice cream sundaes.

I had a hot fudge burger on me,

and mama had a waffle cone.

It was a good day.

Now that Weldon Boyd's community is gone,

this five-year civil suit against him is moving forward.

Separately, a grand jury is considering

criminal charges against Boyd,

and possibly Bradley Williams.

What is this experience taught you about the justice system?

It is far from perfect.

And the easiest thing is the thing

that the justice system is going to do.

You cannot expect the justice system

to advocate for you.

It will not do it.

You have to advocate for yourself.

You have to advocate for your loved ones.

And even then, the justice system

is still going to do only what

you push them to do.

Jennifer told me that now,

her family is at the point

where they can finally start to grieve.

Something that my mom talked about

when we were in our ice cream was that,

we've got plans to sleep

to get peek out of headstone with our family.

We've not been able to do that for two and a half years.

I feel like this is a step in the direction

of healing for our family,

to get in some answers.

Obviously, we still have tons of questions,

but it started to help get some answers last week.

What do you want to say on the headstone?

Jeremiah 1.0 thing.

They might fight against us,

but they will not prosper.

This episode has been updated.

A previous version said that

attorney Morgan Martin spoke first

during closing arguments.

Attorney Ken Moss actually went first.

Camp Swamp Road is part of the journal,

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I'm Valerie Boron.

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For Camp Swamp Road,

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Our senior producer is in Recaperez, Delirosa,

editing by Colin McNulty,

fact-checking by Nicole Pasulco.

Music's sound design and mixing

by Nathan Singapac.

Our theme music is by So Wiley,

remixed for the series by Nathan Singapac.

Special thanks to Catherine Brewer,

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