Justin Cole Carroll, left inset, was found guilty of the 2021 murder of Donasia Alexus Holloway, right inset. (Photos from Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office)
A South Carolina man who ignored a no-contact order and stalked and shot his ex-girlfriend dead in a parking lot while out on bail for domestic violence against her as she filmed him on Snapchat moments before the bloodshed was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Justin Cole Carroll, 24, was sentenced after being found guilty of the 2021 murder of Donasia Alexus Holloway, prosecutors announced in a news release.
The victim’s mother, Shameka Holloway, told local affiliate WCSC the murder was preventable.
“There needs to be harsher punishment for people that do this. They need to stay in jail, stay in prison because they are only hurting other families,” Shameka Holloway told the outlet. “If he would have stayed in jail, our daughter would have been here today.”
Hunter Swanson of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case, said in the news release that the victim was trying to end a toxic relationship, and she tried to protect herself from his jealous rage.
“But Justin Carroll refused to take no for an answer,” he said. “He ignored a no-contact order, stalked her and killed her.”
Authorities said the two had dated for several months. She ended the relationship after he was charged with a domestic assault against her in January 2021, when he had been ordered to have no contact with her, prosecutors said.
Holloway was killed after 10 p.m. on May 22, 2021, when she returned to her apartment complex parking lot from a vacation, and her ex had followed her. She noticed his truck behind her and, fearing for her safety, parked next to a police department cruiser belonging to an officer who lived in the complex.
She locked herself inside her car and posted a Snapchat video as he stood outside her window. In her video, she said Carroll’s behavior “has to stop.”
He shot her four times with a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol, hitting her in the head and neck, before driving off in his pickup truck, prosecutors said.
The officer who lived in the complex heard the shots, went outside and found Holloway dead, slumped in the front seat.
Within hours, the police caught up with Carroll, who told investigators he had been in Charleston, authorities said. When the investigators’ questions got more specific, he ended the interview and refused to answer further questions without a lawyer, prosecutors said in the news release.
At the time, police did not arrest him — they found no weapon and lacked sufficient evidence to charge him. He was released, but two days later, when police discovered the victim’s Snapchat video on her phone, he was arrested, officials said.
Authorities said lab tests showed Carroll had gunshot residue on his right hand, his cellphone had been wiped clean shortly after the murder, and he’d tried to alter his appearance by shaving his head.
Carroll has a 2016 conviction for first-degree assault and battery, prosecutors said. His probation was revoked after he was arrested and convicted of a charge of unlawful carry of a pistol and possession of a controlled substance, officials said.
He was sentenced to three years in prison and had recently been released when he and Holloway started their relationship, prosecutors said.
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