MONCKS CORNER, S.C. –Solicitor Scarlett A. Wilson announced Friday that a Berkeley County jury convicted defendant Kevin Daniel Driggers of kidnapping, burglary in the second degree, and assault and battery in the second degree. Judge Kristi Lea Harrington sentenced him to 30 years in prison suspended upon the service of fifteen years.
The victim, Brenda Mills, was beaten by the defendant with an ax handle after Driggers broke into her home on Upton Road in Saint Stephen on November 4, 2015. Driggers first attempted to enter the home by beating in the back door.
Despite breaking the hinges off the door, he was unable to enter due to the victim bracing herself between the door and a washing machine. The victim’s 14-year-old son fled the home through the front door with another 5-year-old boy living at the residence to seek help and safety, while the victim remained in an attempt to keep the defendant out of the house. Driggers eventually turned his attention to a bedroom window and shattered it with the ax handle, making entry into the home.
Following Driggers’ entry, the victim fled the home through the front door in an attempt to get away, but was stopped when Driggers caught up to her and slammed the ax handle into the back of her head, causing her to fall to the ground. Driggers proceeded to beat the victim using the ax handle, as well as stomping and kicking her body while she lay on the ground with blood pouring out of the back of her head.
Neighbors witnessed Driggers pinning the victim on the ground while beating her with the ax handle, dragging her across the yard, and threatening to kill her. Prior to law enforcement’s arrival, Driggers attempted to rip out her left eye with his fingers. Corporal Shawnda Winder with the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office arrived within five minutes of the 911 call going out, and witnessed Driggers chasing the victim across the yard with the ax handle before she ordered him to the ground at gunpoint.
During the three-day trial, Assistant Solicitors Price Sigal and Wilton H. McNeely presented evidence including 911 calls, testimony from the victim and law enforcement, a medical expert, eyewitness testimony from neighbors, as well as testimony from the victim’s teenage son.
Driggers and the victim had been in a romantic relationship for two years leading up to the assault. Two months prior to the beating, the victim had broken up with Driggers. In an attempt to resume the relationship, Driggers had been calling her incessantly.
The trial was not the first time in court for Driggers. Assistant Solicitor Sigal previously prosecuted and convicted Driggers in 2015 for Criminal Domestic Violence in Berkeley County; a case which also involved victim Brenda Mills. His 2015 Assault and Battery conviction involved Brenda Mills’ son, who testified against Driggers in the trial.
Driggers has two domestic violence convictions and seven assault and battery convictions on his record, in addition to convictions for resisting arrest, threatening the life of a public official, public disorderly conduct, and petty larceny.
Prosecutors praised the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office for their quick response to the scene, and thorough investigation, and thanked the victim for her cooperation throughout the prosecution process.
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