The Journal. - Camp Swamp Road Ep. 6: Your Side, Their Side and the Truth

Episode Date: March 1, 2026

If you want to start on episode one, or hear the full series up to this point, click on this playlist.  Jennifer Spivey Foley has her day in court. After a long hearing with new evidence, a judge decides whether Weldon Boyd and Bradley Williams should have immunity under South Carolina’s Stand Your Ground law for the killing of her brother Scott. WSJ’s Valerie Bauerlein reports from the courtroom.  Read the Reporting: - What Happened on Camp Swamp Road? Follow the Story: - Camp Swamp Road Playlist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To hear previous episodes of Camp Swamp Road, there is a link in this episode's description. Click on that to go to a Spotify playlist of the whole series. A word of warning. This series contains descriptions of violence and strong language, including unbleeped curse words. Please be advised. Previously, on Camp Swamp Road. He shot us first. He shot at you?

He shot 100%. You don't know what to think. It's like the bottom of your whole being, your soul being. soul, everything just kind of drops out. Bradley, I know it's fucked up to say, but I had a fucking blast. I know it's fucked up, but I'm a fucked up person. I was like, you're kidding me. He's like, no, I'm not kidding you.

He's like, it just keeps getting more and more absurd. You know, I'll be so glad when we get out of the podcast world with due respect to you and into the courtroom so we can try this case. The town of Comway, South Carolina, is the Ory County seat. It's where Scott Spivey's body was towed in his truck on the night he was killed. It's where the county council meets. And it's where Jennifer Spivey Foley gave his speech, begging anyone in authority to look at the evidence she'd uncovered.

In a red brick building in the town center is the county courthouse. Inside, a hearing is about to start. It's a hearing for Jennifer's wrongful death lawsuit against Weldon Boyd and Bradley Williams. Good morning. Madam. Are y'all, I'll get you to a media. Media, yeah. Okay. But we know not to bring our phones up.

All right. Thank you. I'll walk into the Uri County Courthouse with my producer, Heather Rogers. There's a lot of people coming in. There's a big line at the security point. Under South Carolina's standard ground law, individuals are entitled to total immunity if they can convince a judge they killed in self-defense.

If the judge agrees, the killers can never be criminally charged or sued in civil court. These proceedings are called an immunity hearing. If the judge says an immunity should apply, Jennifer's lawsuit would be over, and Boyden Williams are forever shielded from criminal prosecution. On the other hand, if the judge says immunity does not apply, Jennifer's civil case can continue. and Boyden Williams could face criminal charges for the killing of Scott's body. The stakes couldn't be higher.

I'm Valerie Borlein, and this is Camp Swamp Road, a series from the journal. Coming up, episode six, your side, their side, and the truth. The courtroom is filled with observers, friends and family on both sides, curious members of the public,

and there's lots of media, both local and national. To me, this sure feels like, like a trial, but there's no jury. It's just a hearing in Jennifer's civil suit. The only person whose opinion matters here is Judge Eugene C. Bubba Griffith. The judge allowed me and the other reporters

to sit in the jury box. From here, I can see everything. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we have roots of darkness. To my left is the judge. To my right are the lawyers and the defendants. William's ready. Defense ready. All right.

Judge Griffith starts by letting each side make opening arguments. Attorney Morgan Martin kicks things off for the defense. That's Boyden Williams side. Martin argues that, in the minutes before he died, Scott Spivey was a public danger. It was Spivey who brought on the difficulty that led to his death. Whatever he did on the road that day, he did for reasons that were satisfactory to himself and himself alone.

himself along. He instigated it. He started. He sustained it. He kept it up. And that was him. Martin is wearing a pink tie and a matching pocket square. He's comfortable in this courtroom. It's kind of his second home. Martin's known as a lion of the Ory County Bar. He's defendant's stand-your-ground cases many times before in criminal court. The defense team valued that expertise. so they brought Martin into the civil case. Everybody else had to react to Mr. Spivey that day. He was, for lack of a better term, as my mother would have said, he was a holy terror that day.

Martin argues that Boyden Williams didn't chase Scott Spivey. They only followed him so they could relay his location to police. And when they got to Camp Swamp Road, Spivey's the one who shot first. This is a place where we come to find the truth, and we would want you to find it here. We want all the facts to be laid out, any and everything. Hide nothing.

Show it all. Because it's clear that the evidence will bring you back to the idea that this is not anything but a clear, clear, it's a case of stand-your-ground immunity. It ain't close, I'll tell you. over at Weldon Boyd, he's wearing a white-collared shirt and a blue sport coat. On his wrist is a two-tone stainless steel and gold Rolex. He looks confident. The plaintiff's side is next. Thank you, Your Honor. Mark Tensley speaks on behalf of the Spivey family. In his opening argument, he points to the calls that Boyd secretly recorded on his phone, the calls where he spoke candidly and made light of the

shooting. In those recordings, Boyd himself called. calls the pursuit of Scott Spivey a chase. Chase is not our word, Judge. It's not the podcaster's words. It's not the media's word. It is well in Boyd's word. And he relentlessly, and this is what the testimony is going to show, he relentlessly chased Scott Spivey and murdered him.

The Boyden Williams side argues that Scott Spivey was a violent road rager. He was speeding, running cars off the road, and threatening other drivers with a gun. Boyden Williams were just being good citizens by following him and calling 911. But Tinsley says, if Boyd chased Spivey, then it's reasonable to think that Spivey would have seen Boyd as the threat. I have never seen a road rage case where the road rager was being chased by an innocent person. When you see those videos on the internet of road rage, some fools coming up and he's beating your side mirror off, he's pounding on your door. He's trying to get you, not get away from you.

Tinsley says that the judge will hear evidence that Weldon Boyd and Bradley Williams lack credibility. Judges have not a standing ground case. This is a chase. This is a chase by and you're going to hear, I don't know how many lies, I tried to count the lies. You're going to hear over and over and over again about their lies. Both of them. With the opening statements concluded, it's now time to present evidence. Boyden Williams side, the defense,

gets to go first. The defense plays surveillance footage from Boardwalk Billies. The bar where Scott Spivey had spent his afternoon on the day he died. Spivey was at the bar for five hours. He ordered some food, seven Miller lights, and eight shots of fireball cinnamon whiskey. That the video shows that some of those drinks were for other people. Spivey then drove his black truck onto Highway 9.

The defense calls witnesses who were also on Highway 9. They testified that they saw Spivey driving erratically, and waving a gun. From their perspective, it was Spivey who started the confrontation. Then, the defense plays a 911 recording from a different witness on Highway 9. She was the first person to call the police

that day. We would intend to play the 911 called Blaze for it. Correct. If you've heard earlier episodes, this call should be pretty familiar. There is a guy that is

waving a gun in front of me trying to shoot at my car And the other ones beside us, he's all over the road. From the start of the police investigation, the witness account of Blaze Ward was crucial. She said she saw everything. She saw Spivey with a gun on the highway. She saw the road raging with Weldon Boyd, and she saw the shooting on Camp Swamp Road. He's jumping out of the truck.

I'm turning the same way. There is a truck behind him. And, oh, my God. Oh, my God. What happened, ma'am? What happened? Did he fire the girl? Ma'am? Ma'am. Oh, my God. Boyden Williams' lawyer described her as, quote,

Little blonde-headed Blaze Ward. The fear in her voice is real, and they want the judge to hear it. The lawyers on both sides wanted Blaze Ward to testify in court. But for months before the hearing, Ward had gone dark. She didn't respond to phone calls, door knocks, or subpoenas. But at the last minute, Ward surfaced. Rather than coming into court to testify, though, she agreed to sit for a recorded deposition. That happened on Friday the 13th, just days before the hearing started.

You can only swear or affirm that somebody are about to give in this case the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth said, it'll be God. Thank you. The entire video deposition was played in court. On behalf of the Spivey family, Mark Tensley asked the first questions. And almost from the get-go, Ward starts backtracking on the things she told. police. Have you had an opportunity to go back and listen to the words that you said on the 911 call? No, I have not recently at all. Okay, but at some point you've either heard it or you've heard people commenting about the words. And you agree now that some of the things that you were saying on the 911

weren't asking, right? Yes. Ward explained that from the moment she saw Spivey's gun, she was terrified. Have you had a prior instance with a gun? Yes. And did that cause you to be afraid? Very much. In the deposition, Ward said that her fear caused her to perceive things that weren't accurate.

For instance, in the 911 call, Ward said that she was trying to get away from Spivey's truck, but she realized later that that was impossible because she was driving behind him. You agreed that at any time, you could have pulled over and stopped and gotten away from whatever was that. Yes. Correct. Then, Ward backtracks on a much bigger claim she'd made to police,

that she saw Scott Spivey shoot his gun at Weldon Boyd's truck. Ward now says that she didn't actually see Spivey fire his weapon. What she saw was glass popping off Boyd's windshield. And because she'd only seen Spivey with a gun, she assumed that he was the one shooting. I said that, of course, I cannot take that. away but I shouldn't have because I put two and two together in my head going back to see him the gun and I thought oh me in my head was too close to for you see the outcome you're gonna think oh my gosh the windshield was blowing out so he's

shooting that's what my reminders were to and I jumped a gun and I said he's jumped out of his truck whole time I didn't see that happen I did not see that happen I didn't see nobody get out of it either being I just would like to live on I may stop. That's good. Boyden Williams' side long saw Blaze Ward as a critical witness. However, her deposition

doesn't seem to be a sland dunk. But she did confirm something important that Bobby was aggressive and threatened her on the road. Next, Boyden Williams' lawyers shift to a different witness, a man named Frank McMurrow. McMurrow was driving down Camp Swamp Road

toward Highway 9. He passed Bobby's black truck right as he jumped out of it, and he was next to Boyd's white truck as the gunfire started. Out of all the witnesses, Frank McMurro had the closest view to the shooting. His number one call is played in court. And what's going on? I know you said shots fired there. Okay, so a guy got out of his truck.

He was in a black truck. He got out of his truck with a pistol drawn. The spot was open. He told the guy, do not follow me anymore. The guy in the white truck had his gun drawn pointed at him. And the guy in the black truck kind of like moved his pistol, and the guy in the white truck has unloaded a complete magazine at the guy. I saw him his back window and I think he might have hit him.

In a written statement to police that night, McMurrow said that he saw Spivey pointing his gun at Boyd, but in a recorded deposition played in the courtroom, his story is different. Yeah, I have no idea who fired first. I didn't hear a single pop but a bunch of pops. I just heard pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. McMurrow testified that he didn't see Spivey point his gun at Boyd's truck.

What he saw was Spivey's gun at his side, the slide locked back, meaning it wasn't ready to shoot. Then, McMurrow said, he saw Spivey move his arm. What I saw was when his arm slightly moved in my side mirror. All hell broke loose. I don't even think he would have the time to raise his gun in chambering fire in that time. I don't. This account, that Spivey had his gun pointed down, is consistent with what McMurrow said to police on Camp Swamp Road. The only place it was different was in his written.

statement. You know, I've been around guns my whole life. I've taken multiple training courses. I've done melty things. He was brandishing a firearm down by his side is what I think. He didn't, I didn't see any motion of him raising that up in aggressive manner or pointing it or anything like that at all. The McMurro didn't see who shot first. He also testified that before shots were fired, he saw Boyd with his gun propped up on the dashboard, pointed at Spabby. I didn't get nervous until I saw the, gun in the white truck because then I was like, oh. This is a bombshell.

Boyden Williams have said from the beginning that Spivey pointed his gun at them and shot first, but McMurrow's deposition cast serious doubt on that version of events. Boyden Williams' attorney, Morgan Martin, asked McMurrow about that. Well, and either, either, either as is written in your handwritten statement or as your telling us today, you did see Mr. Stivey at some point in time raise his pistol and point it towards the white truck before there was any shooting? No, I did. I have never once said I saw Scott Spivey pointed pistol at the white truck. I said he went, he moved his arm in an upward position is all I saw. I never saw him point a gun at that white truck ever. In court, Boyden Williams's lawyers

move on to the aftermath of the shooting. They call a witness. to the stand. Orie County police officer Kerry Higgs. He was the first officer to arrive at Camp Swamp Road. Can you sort of walk the judge through what you observed when you first got on scene, what you did? When I got on scene, it was a little hectic with traffic. Camp Swamp is a route that people go to and from Tabor City. The defense then plays a video on a TV monitor in the courtroom. It's from Higgs's body cam. Within seconds of Higgs' arrival, Weldon Boyd comes running up to him. We were calling.

I was taking pictures with his license plate. When I turned in here, he got out of that truck, had his pistol, he racked it, aimed, and shocked. Me and Ryan started shooting back. I mean, I can't. He was shooting at us. Why would he do that? They saw everything right there. No, we're good.

He's the serious. The body cam then shows Higgs. walking up to Spivey's truck. I'll look over to the Spivey family. They're sitting in the front row of the gallery. My eyes drift to Scott Spivey's mom, Deborah. As the video plays, her jaw drops. She's seeing this footage for the first time.

Checking on the other vehicle, Black Chevy, North Carolina, Pleat. Romeo, Charlie, 153. Higgs walks up to the driver's side door, which is flung open. Scott Spivey is slumped over the center, console. Sir.

The officer prods Spivey's back. There's no response. A few minutes later, Higgs goes around to the passenger side of the truck and opens the door. There's glass scattered across the seat and bullet holes in the front windshield. The camera catches the blood on Scott Spivey's face. Deborah has her eyes fixed on the screen. She looks distraught.

Jennifer is turned away and weeping. She shields her face with a tissue. Unlike Deborah, Jennifer has watched this footage many times, Catalonging it is evidence for her lawyers. By now, the hearing has gone on for two days, and so far there's been very little discussion about Weldon Boyd's state of mind and whether he was in fear for his life on Camp Swamp Road. Neither of the men who killed Scott Spivey has testified.

But the next day, that will change. After the break, Welland Boyd takes the stand. Weldon Boyd takes the stand. It's the boy. It's been a long time coming to you to tell your story. I'm ready. This episode is brought to you by Fidelity.

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read the funds or ETF's prospectus before investing. Funds in ETFs are not guaranteed. Their values change and past performance may not be repeated. Weldon Boyd takes the stand on the third day of the hearing. He's now wearing a gray suit, and he's not wearing his Rolex anymore. After he's sworn in, Boyd is questioned by his longtime lawyer, a man named Ken Moss. Now here's what I want you to do. I want you to pay attention to that judge and only that does.

I'm going to ask you a lot of questions. But the only two people in this courtroom, that matter for you in that job? Yes, sir. Moss questions Boyd for about four hours, and they cover a lot, going back to Boyd's upbringing. My father is a very direct, blunt man, and I think I was raised the same way.

You know, you fall down and get up. I don't want to hear you whine about it. It happens. It's going to happen again. Do the right thing. If you feel like something needs to be doing, you do it. Don't be lazy and put your family first. Boyd has asked about his experience in the National Guard

and a deployment to Kuwait, and he spends a lot of time talking about a custody battle with his ex-fiance. After two hours, Boyd starts to tell his version of what happened on Camp Swamp Road. I'm driving along, and I'm just finishing up a text message and I sent that, and as soon as I sent it,

sometime and immediately after, I hear my friend Bradley, and excuse my language, judge, yell, what the fuck? Boyd tells the court that on Highway 9, Spivey appointed a gun at his friend Bradley Williams. He testifies that Spivey brake-checked him, forcing his truck off the highway. I'm trying to catch up. He's running fast,

and I try to get caught up because I want to get his license. plate. I want to get this information to the police. Boyd testifies that as he drove and spoke to 911, he had one hand on the searing wheel and the other holding his phone. Moss placed portions of

the 911 call in court. I'm going to stay with it the only get this guy out the road. He's aiming guns at people. He wagged it. He was about to shoot at us. We pulled our guns out. I don't know what this dude's problem is. Then Spivey and Boyd turned on to Camp Swan Road.

He's stopping. He's stopping. Hey, we're about to have a fucking shootout, dude. This dude's got a gun. He's got a fucking gun. According to Boyd, Spivey jumped out and started walking towards his truck. Then Spivey did what Boyd calls a Matrix move, dramatically swinging his arm towards Boyd with a gun in his hand. Did you see Mr. Spive fired? I absolutely saw Mr. Spivey fired. Were you afraid when he raised that thing? I knew exactly what was going to happen. Boyd says he dropped his phone and reached for the gun in his waistband.

Then he and William started shooting. Do you have any doubt about what you saw in respect to Mr. Spiveyby? There's no doubt in my mind that that man shot at us first. Boyd's testimony is very different from Frank McMurrow's. McMurrow said that before the shooting started, he saw Boyd gripping his gun with both hands, propped on the dashboard, aimed towards Spivey. Boyd testifies that that was impossible.

I believe, and I'm not going to call anyone, I'm not going to call the liar. I believe McMurrah is, he did not see my gun because I had a phone in one hand. I had another hand on the steering wheel. I was trying to go between shifter, which is up here, shifter down here. I don't know where a gun would have been in that moment. Ken Moss also asked about what happened after the shooting. He questions Boyd about the note written by ORI County Police Officer Damon Viscovy. The note that read,

Act Like a Victim, Camera. Was it a surprise to you that some officers you don't know showed you this note? I didn't know what he meant by. I was totally dumbfounded by it. I mean, what do you say to that? What do you do to that? Act like a victim. I mean, I am a victim.

I'm sitting here at a scene where someone just tried to show. shoot me and we had to shoot back and you walk up and you just flash that in me and then I I mean immediately I knew this was bad because I didn't ask for that that is not

that is not what I needed you to do it's not what I asked you to do I don't know this guy he just walked up and did it to me well you've had a couple years to reflect on it do you have any idea what he might have been doing now

I have thought about this over and over and over because this has made me look guilty of something that I didn't do. And all I can do is just try to figure out why he did it, why he felt led to do it. The only thing that I have come up with is I was in a frantic state. I was up. I think my adrenaline was probably still going. I'm pacing back and forth.

I'm trying to get people on the phone. I don't know if maybe he just wanted. wanted me to calm down and just chill. I don't know if he thought that he was helping. I can't speak for why someone else did something. All I can do is try to understand it, but I don't know why he did it. Well, that does for Mr. Spivey, too. You can't speak for why he did what he did.

Very much so. In the days after the shooting, Boyd is on dozens of recorded phone calls talking about what happened and making light of it. In court, Ken Moss asked Boyd about that time period and how he was feeling. Boyd testifies that he was struggling. Within the next days, I try to get back to it. I just tried to, I got a business run, I got to get back to it. I don't know how that's supposed to work, but I got to do it.

So I try to get to work. I ran errands. What have you told me in the past about what you learned? own in the military. What's that? What have you been told to embrace? You embrace the suck. When things are hard, you make a joke out of it and get the hell over it.

You keep going. What's lying around crying about it going to change? It's not going to change a damn thing. You just go. That's what you did. You just... Is that what you did? Yeah.

I tried to just be tough. I just try. I made light of it. I made jokes of it. It just pushed. it out. It's just we got to get past it. There's shit that does. Excuse my language. I'm sorry.

There's stuff that needs to be done. We've got to keep going. You can't. You just, it's no big deal. You just keep going. That's how I handled this. And I made it about a week. And then what happened? I crashed.

I had a panic attack. I just, I fell. I made it to my bed. And I stayed in my bed for weeks, I would get up the shower and I'd get right back in the bed. I was broken. I didn't work for around eight to ten months. I didn't even walk in my business. I couldn't. I mean, I just, I broke and I'm still broken. Boyd testifies that the things he said on the calls were dark humor, a way to cope with stress.

Or just take the line? They're disgusting. Have you heard? Most of them. I mean, I have a hard time listening to them. I hate listening to them. They're off. They're just disgusting.

After hours of testimony, Kim Moss concludes by again asking Boyd about the shooting. Did you intend to hurt that man? No. Did you have fired at him had he not fired at you? No. I gave him every chance I ate. He just got back in the truck.

Now, the Spivey's lawyer gets to cross-examine Weldon Boyd. Mark Tinsley zeroes in on Boyd's credibility. He asked about the act like a victim note. Now, you remember you questioned Wilder of Damon Diskoe would hand you that note, and then you said that you were pacing back and forth. You're going to lead you to bring up that to you? You're pacing back and forth, and I don't know if you said you think, he felt sorry for you or what, but you couldn't fathom why he did it.

Tinsley placed some footage from Viscovy's body cam before the officer writes the note. The court sees Boyd sitting on his trailer, talking on the phone. In the video, Viscovy asked Boyd who was on the call. Just ask you how you're on the phone with you're saying, Kim. Yes. Boyd was on the phone with his lawyer, Ken. Moss. Boyd hands his phone to Viscovy. He said, Ken, this is Dana.

About a minute after Viscovy talks to Boyd's lawyer, he writes the note. He was gone. And he walks back to his car. And he walks back to his car, raised the note he comes back and he shows it to you. I believe that's when it happened, yes. And Boyd's earlier testimony, he said he was, quote, dumbfounded by the act like a victim note

that he had no idea why Vascovy would show it to him. But Boyd skipped over the detail about the phone call with his lawyer. Next, Tensley moves on to another person who Boyd called after the shooting, Deputy Chief of the Orie County Police, Brandon Strickling. In a call,

Strickland had promised Boyd that he had, quote, the right people coming to Camp Swamp Road. Tinsley plays a call from the following day. You were taking care of us. Well, I appreciate that. I mean, I don't even, I don't, I mean, there's already people saying that I shot him because he's dated my ex. I mean, I don't even understand this shit.

I don't even know the guy. Tinsley asked Boyd, quote, why do you need to be taken care of if it's a clear-cut case of self-defense? I answered a phone call and someone started talking to me. I didn't request to be taken care of. You actually did. You picked up the phone immediately, and you called him to come down there right away. Right? You just heard that.

I did call him. I did ask him to come. I didn't ask for anyone to take care of me. Another big question about Boyd's story has to do with what was in his hands when the shootout started. Was it his phone, as Boyd testified? Or wasn't his gun, as Frank McMurrow testified. Here, Tensley plays a call between Boyd and his mother from two days after the shooting. When he got back in his vehicle and quit shooting at us, we quit shooting.

You hear me... Still being on 9-1-1-1. All right it's recorded. I made sure the phone was sitting right between me and Bradley when this was going on so it could all be recorded. Even the dispatcher is... Made sure it was sitting right between him, right? You'd drop it. You had it sitting there, so it would all be recorded on 911 when you did this.

I dropped the phone. It ended up there, and the shuffling around, it ended up on the floor. That's not what you told your mom, right? We just heard. Truth was not in you, Lee. I dropped the phone. I ended in between us. I assume in the shuffling around, it ended up on the floor.

Next, Tinsley confronts Boyd, about the calls he described as dark humor. But you actually told Bradley that you had a fucking blast, didn't you? I did say that.

Don't recall a conversation but if you do recall denying any of the position, don't you? I said that everything is

pretty terrible. Which is the opposite of having a fucking blast, right? Yeah, I truly believe

that in these days I was going for a traumatic event. I believe I was having kind of a trauma situation,

and I was saying things that just made no sense trying to cope. And using dark humor, trying to cope. I'm not denying any of these things. I'm eating them.

I'm telling you that these things were sick. Tinsley plays a call between Boyd and Williams, where the two friends say that they should commemorate the killing. We have to find somewhere in our body to put a tear drop. I'm doing it. Me and you're going to fucking do it. I don't get a shit. We're doing it.

Dark humor. Now that's your call. It's always dark humor. No, it's always dark humor. That's how I cope. You giggle like a little girl when you're coping? I do giggle. Especially when you're having fun, right? I've had a very difficult time with all of this. And this was filmed, this was recorded in the immediate days after when I am still in the state of confusion, shop, trauma. I'm trying to cope best I can. I use dark humor. I have ups. I have down. I'm crying, I'm laughing, I'm happy I'm alive, I'm paranoid.

It is an up-down episode. And from everything I've seen, that is a totally normal situation for someone to be in after they go through something like that. After about an hour of questioning Boyd, Tinsley stops and looks up at Judge Griffith. Judge, all of these audio calls are indirect. I've cited to them. I can do this. For there's eight hours of calls, and I can do this for hours. I'm going to rely on what we've put in the record.

I don't think I need to play anymore to demonstrate what you've seen here is the test heard. The cross-examination is over. According to my reporting, the Spivey's legal team tried to make a deal with Bradley Williams. In exchange for testifying against Boyd, the family said they would ask the judge to grant Williams immunity. that means he would never risk being charged, never risk going to prison. But instead of taking the deal, Williams takes the stand. The first time I seen him was pointing a gun at me, I exclaimed, well, I said other words, but I'm going to skip that. He was driving erratic.

He would jump in front of us, he would start slamming on the brakes, speed back off, slamming on the brakes again. He ran us off the road. The old Tommy's doing this, he's also pointing the gun at other people, pointing the gun in us, waving the gun on the window. His madness. Williams backs up most everything that Boyd testified to. There was no chase. Boyd was just relaying information to 911. It was Scott Spivey who caused the conflict and Spivey shot first.

Williams' lawyer, Morgan Martin, asked the questions. In the seconds before you are welled and shoot the gun, Are you in fear for your life? Absolutely. Do you believe any reasonable man would have been in fear for his life? Yes, sir, I do. And in your words, why did you shoot when you shot? Because I had no other option.

Other than what? There was nothing else I could do. I couldn't, I can't retreat, I can't get out. I'm there. The Spivey's lawyer, Mark Tensley, cross-examines Williams for about half an hour. The thrust of the questioning is that Williams wasn't just Boyd's passenger. He was an active participant in the killing. After Williams leaves a stand, Boyd and Williams' side rest their case.

And after calling a couple of witnesses, the Spivey's side rests theirs. Now, it's up to the judge. All right. We'll be right back. You don't need AI agents. Which may sound weird coming from Service Now, the leader in AI agents. The truth is, AI agents need you. Sure, they'll process, predict, even get work done autonomously.

But they don't dream, read a room, rally a team, and they certainly don't have shower thoughts, pivotal hallway chats, or big ideas. People do. And people, when given the best AI platform, they're freed up to do the fulfilling work they want to do. To see how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. Y'all have asked for brief summaries. I think 10 minutes each is enough. That's brief.

After a short break, Judge Griffith makes it clear that he's not interested in hearing long, drawn-out closing arguments. Thank you, Judge. Please, the court. Yes, sir. Morgan Martin, for Boyden-Williamside, goes first. I am going to make this abbreviate it. You'll be happy to hear, okay? But there are some things that I do think are worth mentioning,

and I would like for you to take with you when you leave the corporate. First of all, there's a lot of... This is Martin's final chance to convince the judge that Boyd and Williams should have immunity for the killing of Scott Spivey. He says that Spivey's dangerous behavior on the road is not up for debate. As the old law on malice used to say,

he was a guy who was devoid of social duty and fatally bent on mischief. And that's what happened. If you want to get down to why this happened, he caused it. His fault. He didn't withdraw. Martin argues that what Boyd and Williams did on Camp Swamp Road is what any reasonable person would do.

Self-defense, self-preservation is an instinct that comes from the gut. You got it, I got it. Everybody in his room's got it. The great buck on the hill, mightiest in the woods in the woods, If he hears a snap of a twig, he's gone. He's not going to let trouble get him first. As Martin ends his remarks,

Thank you, Judge. Mark Tensley starts to stand up. Ms. Tensley, I want you to stay there. The judge tells Tensley to sit back down. It's not clear what's happening. The lawyers look confused. Both sides had told me it could take weeks or even months before the judge would issue his ruling.

But at this moment, I realize that Judge Griffith doesn't want any time to deliberate. He's already made up his mind. I've listed this whole thing, this withdrawal or trying to get away from the thing. Driving over 115 miles an hour trying to get away sounds like a reason to try to withdraw. I don't know what else you could have done to get away from there. That's getting away, that's withdrawing. At least that's indicative of it. to me and it wasn't working.

Anyway, this is an immunity here. Not a guilt or innocence. It's not a money thing. This is immunity. And this nodding fault and bringing on the difficulty, that's tricky, but credibility is huge here.

I look at Weldon Boyd. He's leaning over the defense table. His hands clutched together. I really questioned the credibility, a well-in boy. I find his testimony lacking credibility in many places. I'll give a few, for instance. I'm not going through them all, but a few. He called Mr. Strickland the deputy, but he wasn't looking for help.

Called a lawyer looking for help. I get that. I called the chief deputy, but it wasn't looking for help. It's not credible. The differing descriptions of Spivey's behavior, outside the truck. Compare McMurrow's description to these two's description, totally different.

I don't know how you confuse those, even if you're looking through your rear view mirror, you'd see a big difference. And whether you call it pursuit, following, I'm chasing, they know. Both guys in that truck know that the guy they're following at a rapid trying to keep up, he's got a gun.

Stay back. He's acting like a fool. He won. Spivey was acting like a fool that day. No question about that. But foolish behavior don't require you to foolishly act yourself. And it seems that driving over 100 miles an hour trying to keep up with the guy with the gun is foolish.

On the plaintiff's side of the gallery, Jennifer and Deborah are sobbing. They're holding each other tight. Phone calls Boyd made after the fact shows his, I don't know, trying to get a story straight, maybe. Trying to get help. trying to make certain that they're going to be free and clear of any responsibility, liability, responsibility, whatever the words you want.

And he's certainly communicating to Mr. Williams to get help in that regard. So here's what I want. I find that Mr. Boyd's request for immunities denied. Weldon Boyd has lost his immunity. the judge finds that South Carolina's standard ground law does not apply in this case. And with that, the powerful shield protecting Boyd from civil penalties and criminal prosecution is gone. In an interview, Boyd's lawyer Ken Moss told me that he was disappointed in the judge's decision. He said that Boyd's recorded phone calls seem to have overshadowed any evidence that his client acted within the law.

As for Bradley Williams, his fate is still up in the air. The judge says he needs to study the evidence a bit more. Because Williams was a passenger, he didn't necessarily choose to be there. Judge Griffith says who will make a decision on William's immunity in the next few weeks. All right. Thank you, that conclusion are here. A few days later, I talked with Jennifer about the ruling. It was so relieving to hear somebody else come to that same conclusion, to someone else to say,

it's not credible. Your story doesn't match. It just was so much like, this is what we've been saying all along. Finally, somebody else sees it. It's exactly what I had been saying from day one to the police and to everybody else. You know, they said,

the detective told me there's three sides to every story, your side, their side and the truth. What was told in court is the closest thing to the truth that anybody's ever going to get. And so after the hearing, what did y'all do? We had our receiving line of friends and family that came and loved on us afterwards. And as we made our way downstairs, you know, we had lots of congratulations.

We went downstairs and then me, mama, and my husband, we loaded up in my car. And I said, I don't know you about y'all, but I want some ice cream. I think this deserves it. I think we deserve milkshakes after today. So we went and got ice cream Sundays. I had a hot fudge brownie, and mama had a waffle cone. It was a good day.

Now that Weldon Boyd's immunity is gone, the Spivey's civil suit against him is moving forward. Separately, a grand jury is considering criminal charges against Boyd and possibly Bradley Williams. What has this experience taught you about the justice system? It is far from perfect. And the easiest thing is the thing that the justice system is going to do. You cannot expect the justice system to advocate for you.

It will not do it. You have to advocate for yourself. You have to advocate for your loved ones. And even then, the justice system is still going to do only what you push them to do. Jennifer told me that now, her family is at the point where they can finally start to greet. Something that made my mom talk about when we were eating our ice cream was that. We've got plans to sleep to go pick out a headstone family. We've not been able to do that for two and a half years.

I feel like this is a step in the direction of healing for our family, to get in some answers. Obviously we still have tons of questions, but it started to help get some answers last week. What do you want to say on the headstone? you want to say on the headstone. Jeremiah 119. They may fight against us, but they will not prosper. Camp Swap Road is part of the Journal, which is a co-production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. I'm Valerie Borlein. The journal is full of deeply reported stories like this one, involving danger. If you want to survive, you need to pay money and then leave this place.

Conspiracy. What she's doing is a scam, and what the scam is called is laptop farming. And mystery. What was your reaction when you first heard that this multi-billion dollar fortune had gone missing? I mean, I think like... WTF? Yeah, WTF, exactly.

I hope you check out more from the journal. I'm so proud to be a part of it. Follow or subscribe for more great work. Episodes are out every weekday afternoon. For Camp Swamp Road, our producer is Heather Rogers. Our senior producer is Enrique Perez Delarosa. Editing by Colin McNulty. Fact-checking by Nicole Pasolka.

Music, sound design, and mixing by Nathan Singapok. Our theme music is by So Wiley, remixed for this series by Nathan Singapok. Special thanks to Catherine Brewer, Miguel Buccio, Sam Enriquez, Maddie, Rachel Humphreys, Jennifer Levitts, Ava Lubel, Bruce Orwell, Fulana Patterson, Sarah Platt,

Cam Pollock and the entire Journal podcast team. Thanks for listening. And stay tuned. We're still following this story. Keep an eye out for updates in the Wall Street Journal and the journal podcast feed.