Cornelius L. Alston
WINNSBORO (Sept. 14, 2016) – A Winnsboro man was arrested and charged with murder earlier this month after a domestic dispute spiraled out of control, leaving one man dead.
The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office said Cornelius Laderrick Alston, 39, was arrested on Sept. 3, not far from the home in the 1700 block of Smalls Chapel Road where 44-year-old Marvin Dejon Young lay dead, the victim of a stab wound.
According to the incident report, Alston’s 15-year-old son told investigators that he and his father had been out all day and had returned to his mother’s home at 1726 Smalls Chapel Road at approximately 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 3. Once there, Alston and the juvenile’s mother got into a verbal argument that quickly escalated and became physical. The argument intensified, with both Alston and the juvenile’s mother going out into the front yard and flattening the tires on each other’s cars.
The juvenile’s mother sprayed Alston in the face with a shot of pepper spray and eventually drew a pocket knife to force Alston to leave the home. Young, of 59 N. Wisteria Lane, soon became involved in the altercation and, according to the report, leapt onto the top of Alston’s car, shattering the windshield.
Once back inside the house, Alston reportedly snuck up behind Young and stabbed him in the lower left side of his back. Fairfield County Coroner Barkley Ramsey, who pronounced Young dead at the scene, said Alston had used a large kitchen knife to stab Young through both lungs. The wound cut through Young’s aorta, Ramsey said, and Young rapidly bled out internally.
According to the report, Alston’s son told investigators that after Young had been stabbed, the victim collapsed onto the floor. The juvenile placed a towel underneath Young and began chest compressions while the juvenile’s mother attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Alston fled the scene, the juvenile said, right after Young collapsed from the wound.
Deputies arrived at the scene just after 6 p.m. As they turned onto Smalls Chapel Road, they spotted Alston sitting on top of his car at the end of the road, trying to flag the officers down. After securing the scene, and after investigators had arrived, deputies returned to the end of Smalls Chapel Road to find Alston still there waiting for them.
Alston, of 470 A Pine St., was arrested and charged with murder. At press time he was still being held at the Fairfield County Detention Center.
