Background: A picture depicting the location of the March 2023 shooting of Jillian Angner (14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, South Carolina). Inset (left): John Patrick Shea (Beaufort County Detention Center). Inset (right): Jillian Angner (Sauls Funeral Home).
A South Carolina man who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend in front of her young son will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
John Patrick Shea, aged 29, appeared in court on Wednesday to express his apologies to Jillian Angner’s family. Angner, a 25-year-old woman, was shot by Shea in March 2023 while escorting her 6-year-old son to school. Shea, who had dated Angner and began stalking her post-breakup, pleaded guilty to all four felony charges against him, including Angner’s murder and the attempted murder of her son, requesting a life sentence.
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The 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office in South Carolina released a press release, stating that Shea pleaded guilty to Angner’s murder as his trial commenced. Prosecutors noted Shea confessed to the planned killing of Angner and also admitted to the “attempted murder of Angner’s young son, discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, and possession of a weapon during commission of a violent crime.”
According to prosecutors, Shea and Angner’s relationship ended in October 2022. In the months that followed, Angner reported “multiple instances of stalking and break-ins at her home” that were allegedly committed by Shea.
On the morning of March 2, 2023, Shea got a friend to drive him to Angner’s home. The friend believed the ride was for a “drug run” and did not know he was driving Shea to Angner’s home.
As Angner packed up her car to take her 6-year-old son to school, she was ambushed by Shea, who opened fire on her and her son while they were in her Jeep Cherokee. He had been waiting for them to come outside. Angner was struck several times, including a critical wound to her neck. Her son “escaped by crawling out of the back of the vehicle and hiding in a nearby marsh,” according to prosecutors.
Angner was hospitalized and placed on life support. She never regained consciousness and died on Aug. 5, 2023.
Shea was apprehended days later while he was packing his car with suitcases and preparing to flee. He had his passport and birth certificate on him when he was taken into custody.
During the investigation by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, authorities searched his apartment and found “defaced photographs of Angner, tarot cards, a voodoo doll, a makeshift shrine, and literature related to satanism and the occult.” A letter written by Shea’s own mother described her concern for her son’s behavior and mentioned a threat against his brother’s life.
Authorities also found evidence that Shea was possibly stalking other women he had dated going back to 2008, “along with notes about each encounter.” Shea also apparently attempted to create an alibi for himself by leaving his car parked at a bar.
Shea’s murder trial had begun on Tuesday, when seven witnesses testified on the stand. Before testimony could resume on Wednesday, the defendant confessed to his crimes and pleaded guilty “without recommendation or negotiation from the state,” according to courtroom reporting by local news outlet The Island Packet.
Shea told the court, “I can’t take this pain in my heart anymore. I’m sorry, from the deepest reaches of my soul, for what has happened here.” He claimed he was “mentally sick and mentally unstable” at the time of the crime.
He then pleaded with Circuit Court Judge S. Bryan Doby, “Please, please spare my life, your honor. Please spare my life. I beg of you: Please spare my life. I made a mistake.”
Shea ended up getting his wish and was sentenced to life in prison for Angner’s murder plus the maximum sentences for the remaining three charges.
