Man gets 40 years in North Charleston shooting death

By Robert Behre

The Post and Courier

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

A Charleston County jury found Kaseem "Nitty" Stephens guilty of murder Tuesday in the shooting death of a man in a North Charleston mobile home park two years ago.

Circuit Judge R. Markley Dennis Jr. sentenced Stephens to 40 years in prison — 10 years more than the minimum term.

The jury took less than three hours before agreeing that Stephens, 31, shot and killed Sheldon Frasier, 25, in front of Frasier's fiancee, Kimberly Bates.

Assistant Solicitor Kevin Hales said Frasier was gunned down at Lee and Ree streets in the Trailwood mobile home park off Dorchester Road, where he and Bates had gone to invite a friend to their wedding reception the next day.

A witness testified that Stephens thought that Frasier had pulled a gun on him previously, Hale said, "but there was no evidence presented at the trial whether he did nor didn't."

Instead, Stephens claimed he wasn't at the scene. He was arrested by U.S. marshals in a Brooklyn, N.Y., barbershop in early 2008, and his fingerprints matched those of the suspect sought by North Charleston police.

Hales said he was pleased with the verdict. "I hope that the result will give the victim's family some form of closure," he said.