Did a Store Owner Kill a Teen Over Bottled Water?

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Today I'm looking at the opening statements in the Chow case out of Columbia, South Carolina. It's a murder trial that sounds in self-defense, but that claim of self-defense may be suspect. We'll have to see. I'm also putting an apology and an explanation for my absence at the end of this video.

[00:00:19]Not so much to draw sympathy, but just to let you know what happened when I was particularly clumsy over the last couple of days. Stay with me and I'll explain.

[00:00:36]Hi, Tony Dit here. Formerly, I was a Missouri attorney in active practice.

[00:00:41]Then I retired. Then I unretired and started a YouTube channel. And I bring you all kinds of stuff about trials and the law. So, no legal advice is given, but stay tuned. This is what we're talking about today.

[00:00:57]As I mentioned, this case happened in Columbia, South Carolina, and this 14-year-old boy went into a convenience store and came out running for his life.

[00:01:07]But let's let the prosecutor tell us the story. Please >> fell.

[00:01:18]Ladies and gentlemen, the jury, what is the value of a human life?

[00:01:25]to grieving parents who've lost a 14-year-old to senseless acts of violence.

[00:01:31]A human life is priceless.

[00:01:36]But on May 28th, 2023, Chai Key Rick Chow, the defendant in this case, determined that Cyrus Carmarmac Belton's life was worth less than four bottles of water.

[00:01:53]I say this because in May of 2023, Chai Rick Child, the defendant in this case, was the owner of a convenience store and gas station on the corner of Park Lane, Springtree here in Colombia.

[00:02:07]His wife was working that evening. She was a co-owner and their adult son was working there as well that particular evening. It was around 8:00 or so.

[00:02:18]that Cyrus Carmarmac belts and a 14-year-old walked into that store and he had on a red hoodie with a small pocket in the front. He was carrying a black backpack.

[00:02:30]We know this to be true because the defendant in this case, Cha Rick Chow, had an intricate camera system that captured almost every interaction within that store and multiple camera angles.

[00:02:44]He also had camera angles outside of the store on the premises of the store and immediately adjacent to the store so you could see what happened at the beginning of Spring Street as his property ended.

[00:02:55]So Cyrus walked into that store, red hoodie, small pocket in the front, black backpack, and he walks in and he immediately is asked by the co-owner Alice Ch to remove his backpack. That's no policy. Cyrus complies, does exactly what he's asked to do.

[00:03:14]>> Now, that's an important point in terms of the self-defense claim, at least in my analysis of it, is the fact that he willingly put his backpack down, which, you know, assuming he was going to shoplift stuff, you'd want to shoplift as much as you could. You'd put it in the backpack.

[00:03:34]but he had on a hoodie and some hoodies do have pretty deep pockets. So, let's keep listening.

[00:03:42]>> He puts that backpack on the cooler and begins to walk around and browse throughout the store. He goes aisle by aisle browsing, looking around, looking at the candy, looking at, looking at other things in the store. And Alice is directly behind him watching everything that he does. When he walks to the front of the store, she watches. When he walks to the side of the store, she watches.

[00:04:08]She leans against post and watches everything that he's doing as he walks through that store.

[00:04:15]Their adult son, Andy, is working the counter and he's watching as well. And as other customers come in to walk to to to buy things, he'll service them and continue to watch Cyrus as he walks through the store.

[00:04:28]Finally, Cyrus walks to that back right corner of the store. And again, we know this to be true because of that intricate camera system that Mr. Child stops. He walks to the back. He opens a water cooler, leans the water cooler against his right should his left shoulder, and takes out four bottles of water. One, two, three, and four. And after a second, he pauses and methodically puts all four water bottles back into that cooler. 1 2 3 and four.

[00:05:01]He closes the cooler and begins to walk back towards the front of the store. So, I'm probably reading a lot into this, but my guess is he's thinking about buying the water and he looks around and he realizes that everybody is looking at him real suspiciously and maybe he thinks, "I don't need this.

[00:05:23]I don't need these people thinking I'm a thief."

[00:05:27]So he put the B water bottles back and I'm sure at that point he was ready to leave. He probably didn't like the fact that these people all had him solely under surveillance even though there were other people in the store, but they were all watching him.

[00:05:45]And it may very well be a case of implicit bias on the part of the owner and the other family members who were working there in that they may have believed he was just another kid in there who was there to steal and he's being judged by some of his less law-abiding peers. But of course that doesn't make anything like that right. And it's that point that the verbal confrontation begins. And I say confrontation because Cyrus said nothing. The co-owner of the store, Alice J, asked if he needed help and eventually accused him of stealing water, told him to empty his pockets.

[00:06:32]The adult son, Andy, who was watching, said the same thing. You took some water. Give us back the water. Cyrus said, I took nothing. I didn't take anything.

[00:06:42]I didn't take anything. And they continued to verbally attack him.

[00:06:48]>> Note the word choice there by the prosecutor. Verbally harass him.

[00:06:54]Verbally attack him. He's using action words to clearly portray what he apparently thinks happened, which is this is just fixing to be a beatdown for the poor 14-year-old kid, even though he's completely innocent.

[00:07:12]Sometimes people try to convey emotion with graphic imagery. I think he's trying to convey it with graphic phrases. And that is sometimes the job of a prosecutor, >> accusing him of stealing water.

[00:07:30]Interestingly enough, you look at that intricate camera system. Cyrus telling the truth. He took nothing from that store that day. As he tried to walk out of the store, they continued to verbally harass him to the point where he took his backpack and calmly walked out of the store. Again, we know that to be true because of that intricate camera style installed. And as he walks toward that door, the co-owner, Alice Chow, says something in Cantonese that makes her son run around the counter towards Cyrus. And then Chaiki Ripch Child, the defendant in this case, comes from out of an office in the convenience store armed with a 45 caliber Glock pistol and follows Cyrus out of that store. Cyrus walks out of the store, takes a right slowly, and hears them yelling, running after him, turns to see. And again, the camera system shows these things, and he takes off running.

[00:08:40]Cyrus tries to run through the parking lot to the point to where he runs out of his Air Force One Nike shoe.

[00:08:49]It's hard to imagine just how petrified that young man must have been at that time. He's got two people chasing after him, one of whom has a firearm. I'd be running too.

[00:09:00]>> Runs out of his shoe, doesn't turn around to pick it up because you have an adult male running behind you with a 45 caliber Glock pistol who has falsely accused you of stealing.

[00:09:14]So, he runs. He drops two cell phones out of his pocket. We know this to be true because there are witnesses who we expect you'll hear from who talk about how they had to throw on brakes to keep from hitting them as they ran across traffic. We know this to be true because of that intricate camera system that he installed.

[00:09:36]He drops two cell phones, one belonged to him, one to his mother. Doesn't turn around to pick up one of those cell phones.

[00:09:46]continues to run, falls down, gets back up running, falls again, busts his shin, drops the backpack, keeps running.

[00:09:56]In total, Chaki Rickshow and his son, chased Cyrus Carmarmac over 130 yards off of their property onto a public road in Columbia, South Carolina.

[00:10:12]And eventually after Osiris fell a couple of times, Shai Key Rick Chow fired the fatal shot which ended his life.

[00:10:22]Folks, 130 yards. It's a football field. No, in fact, it's a football field goalpost to goalpost plus 10 yards.

[00:10:41]Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm Byron Gibson, the fifth judicial circuit solicitor, and I along with Dale Scott and Stephanie Taylor in the Western Leaf represent the state of South Carolina.

[00:10:56]So, for the next few minutes, I'm going to give you a little bit more of a road map of what this case entails, what our position is in this case, and what we believe we can prove, as well as give you an idea of what to expect from the court and how this proceeding will run for those next several days.

[00:11:13]The opening statement goes on for some period of time beyond that. And we've already heard how the story starts and how the story ends, at least from the prosecution's point of view. The rest is just details, and frankly, that's going to be coming in in evidence. We don't really need to see that. But it might be interesting to hear the defense perspective on all this. So, let's take a listen to that. Now, >> ladies and gentlemen, the jury, good morning.

[00:11:45]I My name is Jack Swirling. We met briefly uh yesterday when we were doing the jury selection. Uh and it's my uh position at this point to go ahead and give you what a defense opening statement. Uh and I appreciate you being here. Uh thank you for being here. And I hope that you find this uh experience on your part to be an interesting experience about looking into your judicial system. Uh you know, we spent uh let me just back up a minute.

[00:12:18]My good friend, the solicitor, uh just gave a outstanding uh opening statement himself. But the one thing that I did not hear and the one thing that I do not believe you will hear during the course of this trial is why a 14-year-old would be illegally possessing a semi-automatic pistol.

[00:12:45]wandering the streets with that pistol, with a laser attached to that pistol. A laser to go ahead and ensure better accuracy when you fire the weapon.

[00:13:02]A semi-automatic pistol that was loaded, the magazine was loaded and there was a bullet in the chamber.

[00:13:12]It was illegally possessed by this young man.

[00:13:18]He illegally entered the store because there was a sign posted.

[00:13:25]It's illegal to go ahead and enter the store with a weapon versus what Mr. Chow did. Mr. Chow had a concealed weapons permit. He never drew his weapon. He was authorized to have a weapon, but he didn't draw that weapon until his son was in danger of being shot.

[00:13:52]The solicitor solicitors in this case want to frame this case. I hate to interrupt him here mids sentence, but that's the second time he has said frame this case. That can't be unintentional.

[00:14:10]He is trying to communicate to the jury that they are framing Mr. Chow.

[00:14:17]>> Is all about a bottle of water. It was all about someone wrongly accused of shoplifting in the store.

[00:14:29]that nothing else matters to the state in this situation as to why this young man had that weapon, why he carried that weapon.

[00:14:42]Because if he didn't have that weapon, he never would have had a weapon to draw on Andy Chow.

[00:14:52]He never would have had a weapon to put Andy Chow in danger.

[00:14:56]and he never would have had a weapon that would cause Mr. Chow to believe his son was going to be shot and have to make a split second decision, split second decision as to whether or not to go ahead and fire that gun and protect his son.

[00:15:21]There's going to be a lot of questions in this case, a lot of things that you're going to have to resolve.

[00:15:27]But I wanted to go ahead and tell you what why this case is framed the way the state is doing it. Because they don't want to explain why that young man had a semi-automatic pistol, loaded, bullet in the chamber with a laser, entering the store, wandering the streets. They don't want to explain because you know what they cannot.

[00:15:52]>> Okay. So now we know the theory of the defense. It's self-defense and defense of another. You can certainly be privileged to defend the life of someone that you love or even just somebody else who's under attack if someone pulls a gun on them or uses some other weapon on them. And so we didn't hear anything from the prosecutor about a firearm in the possession of the young man. And maybe he wasn't so scared after all.

[00:16:24]Maybe he planned to get away from all of those cameras and use that firearm. I don't know. I'm hypothecating here. And of course, that's not fair either. But the bottom line is that they do have a defense that would be valid under South Carolina law if indeed he had a firearm with a laser on it and had pointed it at Andy. If that's the case, then it's going to be a case of self-defense.

[00:16:53]I'm not sure where the mixup is here, but I can tell you one thing, and that is this is another episode that I have seen so many times of tragically poor judgment on the part of a concealed carry permit holder. The idea of a concealed carry permit is designed to give you a defensive tool, not an offensive tool.

[00:17:23]not a tool that you can use to hold a suspect in your store and wait for the cops, only to defend against that suspect's use of a firearm against you. So, we know from what the prosecutor said that there was no display of a weapon in the store.

[00:17:45]At that point, when he left the store, they had one job, one job only. And that job was 911. You call 911. You say, "We got a kid. We think he stole some bottles of water. He's uh walking away from the store and we want to see him arrested."

[00:18:06]And then the police would go and they'd try to find the bottles of water. And if he didn't have any, he would have been let go. But if he did have a 9mm or other calibered weapon in his possession, he probably would have gone to jail.

[00:18:21]But either way, he'd be alive.

[00:18:25]Generally speaking, if someone comes into your home and attacks you or into your business and attacks you, you have every right to defend yourself. But if you put them to flight, in other words, if they know you're you're armed, and obviously one of the reasons he left the store is because he saw Mr. Chow had a firearm. Well, if you if you put them to flight, you never are allowed to pursue them because now it's not a matter of self-defense.

[00:18:58]It's a matter of you pursuing them and perhaps trying to invoke a little justice on your own. And that's just never allowed.

[00:19:08]Now, this is a little mudded because now we've got situation where he has firearm and he's pointing at it. And in this is going to be difficult for the jury to work out. I'd also point out that the lawyer here for the defense reminds me a lot of William Kunler. He was one of the people who defended the Chicago 7 uh after the 1968 Democratic Convention riots. And u he was quite the uh he was quite the flamboyant defense lawyer. And it seems to me that perhaps this gentleman is as well. Be an interesting case to follow. Sorry I didn't get this out yesterday.

[00:19:51]Now on to the explanation. One of the things I always tell people uh when I'm talking about tors and and product liability claims and things like that is you don't have a claim if you don't read and follow the safety instructions because you're not reading the instructions or you're not reading the safety advisories is no excuse for bad conduct that happens on your part. So, you can't really blame the manufacturer of something if you do something that the manufacturer explicitly tells you not to do.

[00:20:31]This was brought home to me quite quite painfully on Thursday.

[00:20:40]I was I had to go down to Florida as I told y'all and I went down and while I went down I had to trim the h the hedges. So, we have these hedges and they're usually dark green, but toward the beginning of summer, they start growing leaves and they turn this kind of yellow green. And so, you got to cut off all those yellow green leaves so that it looks like a hedge again instead of look looking like just a mess. So, I got out the old electric hedge trimmers and went to do the bushes. So, the first bush on the right side of the garage, 5 minutes, everything went fine. Second bush on the left side of the of the garage, 5 minutes, everything went fine.

[00:21:25]I walked around to the front where we have a long hedge. And I managed to go most of the way down and get most of it done. And then because I had to stretch a little bit with the hedge trimmer, I was stretching with the hedge trimmer and instead of keeping this hand out of the way, I went and moved with my hand and uh the in the hedge clipper didn't catch the piece of hedge and it came swinging down and it hit my finger. Now, I'm not going to show it to you because it's gross. took a fairly good sized chunk out of my finger, which you know, throw a couple of band-aids on it and you're good to go, right? Except I have this funny thing called a vaso veagal reaction to trauma.

[00:22:22]It's just I don't even know why it happens to me. But basically, if my heart rate is at 90 while this is going on, while I'm trimming the bushes, if I do that, my heart rate drops to 50 almost immediately. I get cold and clammy. I went in, I ran some water over my finger, wrapped it in a paper towel, and I knew I was going to pass out. So, I went in and sat on the couch and boom, I winked out for probably a good, I don't know, 10 or 15 minutes. And when I came to the paper towel had come loose and I had bled all over creation and so I I told my wife I lost an extra pound today and most of it was in blood. Uh, it was not something I really wanted to do as you might imagine. So, I had to finish with the hedges and I had to get the rest of the work done. I had to mow the lawn. I got that done about 5:00 and there was just no gas in the tank, guys.

[00:23:32]I apologize. No gas whatsoever in the tank. I couldn't make a video yesterday, so please forgive me. Thanks for watching. I appreciate you being here today. And if you're a new subscriber, a double thank you. That means a lot to me. One of the themes on this channel, in case you didn't know, is kindness. If you have the opportunity today, try to do just one thing to help somebody else.

[00:23:57]It doesn't have to be a big thing. Any kind thing will do. Buy somebody a Coke, get them a cup of coffee, hold a door open for somebody struggling with a package. Or my favorite, return a shopping cart in the north 40 of Walmart rolling towards somebody's nice new vehicle to the cart corral. Or another thing, overtip your waitress or waiter if you go out to eat tonight. Those kinds of things make their day brighter, and you may find yourself noticing other people when they do kind things for you.

[00:24:30]That'd be a good way to make the world a better place. After all, isn't that what we're all about? I'm going to drop my email address up here in the event you have a comment or some suggestions you might want to make. I always appreciate it if you'd send me something that tells me you'd like you'd like me to make a video on a particular topic. Now, YouTube has a few things they think you might be interested in and they're going to be showing up right up here. Thanks for watching. Have a great day.