Brandon Grubbs was gunned down in his South Augusta home in December of 2016, and despite the full cooperation of his family and friends, the case went cold. However, evidence is now mounting that Grubbs’ murder may be linked to several others.
By all accounts, 21-year-old Grubbs was a simple country boy who enjoyed hunting and playing video games. According to Grubbs’ mother, Cathy Williams, her son worked as a landscaper and helped her care for his grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s.
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Grubbs had no past trouble with the law, but Williams said he did smoke marijuana recreationally.
“He didn’t sell drugs, but he did smoke a little pot from time to time,” Williams said.
Three days after Christmas, Williams, who was living in Florida at the time, received a phone call that no parent ever wants to get. Kristin McCoyton, Williams’ daughter and Brandon’s sister, phoned with the news that Brandon was dead.
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“I couldn’t believe it. I simply could not think of anyone who would want to hurt Brandon,” she said.
Richmond County Sheriff’s Officers responded to a 911 call shortly after noon on Dec. 28 and discovered a gruesome scene. Grubbs had been shot in the left hand, left arm, both sides of the neck and in the head, according to the coroner’s report.
The report details that spent bullet casings from a 9mm pistol were found in several rooms of the house with the final shot to the head occurring in the kitchen, where his body was discovered.
According to the coroner’s report, McCoyton arrived on the scene and told police that several friends had called her and told her to get over to the house.
In the small South Augusta community, people were talking.
McCoyton told police that she feared the crime was drug-related but at the time, she could not offer details on who might have been the perpetrator. Grubbs was only known to buy small amounts of pot. There is no indication in the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office report that marijuana was found in the dwelling and no indication of a robbery, since Grubbs had $156 in his wallet.
In the days following the murder, Williams received a call from Eddie Louis Grubbs, an acquaintance, but not a family member. Williams said that Louis Grubbs told her that on the day of the murder, he was in the car with his nephew Christopher Scott, recently released from prison after serving time for burglary, and another unidentified man, and that the other two had gone to the house, ostensibly to conduct a drug transaction.
Louis Grubbs, a resident of Burke County known to everyone as Pops, said he did not get out of the car and had no idea what might have occurred inside, according to Williams.
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Williams said she told Louis Grubbs to contact the police, but there is no indication that he ever did. Just one month later, Louis Grubbs would face the same fate as Brandon Grubbs. He and another man would be found shot to death at his mobile home in Burke County.
When Williams learned of Louis Grubbs’ death, she said she tried to convince Richmond County Sheriff’s officials that the two murders were connected, but she added that no one in the Sheriff’s Office was inclined to follow up.
“They don’t care. That’s just how I feel. At this point, the case has been passed through at least 10 different investigators, and they all tell me the same thing: that the case has gone cold,” she said.
Indeed, the only response from the sheriff’s office to an Open Records Act request was one simple paragraph, so there is no information available that show Christopher Scott was ever questioned.
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Over in Burke County, investigators were moving quickly in the Louis Grubbs case. Burke County Sheriff Alfonzo Williams said that the case had been turned over to the GBI.
“There were actually four people in the house at the time,” Sheriff Williams said. “Three of them were shot, and a female that was present managed to escape the house and run away unharmed.”
It was not long before the GBI centered in on a suspect named Quame Collins, who stands today charged with the double murder.
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According to Sheriff Williams, Collins is a known drug dealer and gang member with a long rap sheet.
“This guy is more than just a bad character. He’s scary,” Sheriff Williams said.
Meanwhile, in Richmond County, the murder case of Brandon Grubbs has been dormant as the years passed by.
“I have called the investigators almost monthly for years and Richmond County doesn’t ever have any new information, and they don’t want to hear about the tips I have found,” said Brandon Grubbs’ mother.
However, a lead may have recently been uncovered when Scott was arrested in 2019 on charges of aggravated assault and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
A man by the name of Mike James, an acquaintance of Scott, found himself sharing a cell with him. According to Brandon Grubbs’ mother, Scott reportedly bragged to James that he was involved in her son’s murder.
According to James, Scott also identified the third man who was in the car with him and Louis Grubbs on the day of the murder.
That man’s name, according to James, is Quame Collins.
Scott Hudson is the Editorial Page Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com. Anna Porzio is a correspondent with The Augusta Press. Reach her at anna@theaugustapress.com.
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