A South Carolina jury found Chikei Rick Chow not guilty of murder on Monday, June 1, 2026, ending a closely watched trial in Columbia over the 2023 fatal shooting of 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton.
The verdict came after closing arguments in Chow’s murder trial and closed a case that had centered on the death of a Black teenager. Chow, a convenience store owner, had been accused in the shooting, but jurors did not convict him on the murder charge.
For Carmack-Belton’s family, the decision brings a legal ending to a case that began with a boy’s death in 2023 and unfolded in a city courtroom nearly three years later. For Chow, it removes the murder charge that had defined the trial and left him facing the most serious possible outcome.
The result also leaves one important detail unanswered in the public record provided here: beyond the murder count, it is not clear what other charges, if any, were before the jury. What is clear is that the jury’s decision turned on murder alone, and that the trial in Columbia ended without a conviction.
The case will remain tied to Cyrus Carmack-Belton’s name, age and the fact that he was Black when he was fatally shot at 14. Monday’s verdict did not erase that history. It did, however, settle the question the jury was asked to answer, and it answered no.
