A man charged with murder in a 2020 fistfight that turned deadly pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Wednesday.
Robert Keith Prince, 21, and Roger Rashan Fielding, 19, faced charges of malice murder and felony murder in the Sept. 4, 2020 death of Kafele Bush, 25, at the Azalea Park apartment complex.
Witnesses told authorities Bush sometimes seemed “a little bit off” and had pushed the shoulder of one of the two suspects as they prepared to smoke a joint, prosecutor Keagan Waystack told the court.
The pair got in a fistfight with Bush. Prince’s mother, who lived at the complex, attempted to break it up and ended up getting punched, said Waystack, major crimes assistant district attorney for the Augusta Circuit.
After returning to their apartment, Prince came back outside and using a removed car headlamp, struck Bush in the head, knocking him to the ground, she said.
Bush, whom the medical examiner said suffered a concussion, aspirated on vomit and died, Waystack said. He’d consumed a large amount of “Triple C,” she said. That’s the street name for the cough syrup Coricidin HBP.
Bush’s mother told the court her son had mental illness and didn’t deserve to die.
“My son didn’t bother nobody, but you had to bother him,” she said. “I hope you get everything you deserve… I would like to see a life for a life.”
Appointed defender Jesse Owen told the court Bush’s death was “one of those unfortunate instances” when a defendant’s actions “have nowhere near the intended result.”
Prince said he’d made it to 12th grade in school and had no kids.
Senior Judge J. David Roper gave Prince 10 years with credit for the 19 months he’d been in jail.
“You’re going to jail for a very stupid thing that you did,” Roper said.
Prince was previously granted a bond but Superior Court Judge Ashley Wright revoked it last year for tampering with his ankle monitor, not reporting to a probation officer and violating a curfew. He and two other inmates were indicted in January for having a shank.
Fielding and six others were indicted in July for unlawful violence in a penal institution, aggravated assault and possessing a shank in an armed attack on other inmates.
