A young man scheduled to stand trial next week on murder and robbery charges in the slaying of a man in downtown Charleston in 2020 instead entered a surprise guilty plea.
Darcellus Fishburne, who was 16 at the time of the crime, entered a plea at an unscheduled court hearing in Charleston County Circuit Court in the shooting death of 63-year-old Tom DiLorenzo. According to information the solicitor’s office released after after 5 p.m. April 17, Fishburne pleaded guilty to murder, armed robbery and attempted armed robbery.
Judge Jennifer B. McCoy, who accepted the plea, deferred sentencing.
Fishburne was to stand trial April 20. He was the first of three young men charged in the July 17, 2020, death of DiLorenzo. Charges remain pending against Travis Wilson and Jaylen Grant, who were teens between the ages of 14 and 16 at the time of the killing. All three defendants have been held in jail without bond since their arrests nearly five years ago.
The defendants allegedly traveled from North Charleston to downtown in a stolen vehicle to rob people, The Post and Courier previously reported.
Authorities said the three unsuccessfully targeted a 74-year-old woman on Archdale Street, then held up a 20-year-old construction worker near Calhoun and Philip streets.
Around 6 a.m., DiLorenzo and his wife were on a morning walk near King and Crawford streets when the teens confronted them. The couple had only lived in Charleston a few weeks after the wife became the new provost at the College of Charleston.
DiLorenzo told the teens that he didn’t have any money, per earlier reports. He was shot in the chest before the teens fled. Fishburne and Wilson later blamed each other for the shooting. An eyewitness told investigators the shooter wore a red shirt. Wilson was wearing red that morning, The Post and Courier reported.
The woman who was robbed first told Charleston police that it was Wilson who pointed a gun at her, according to prior reporting.
Investigators reported Wilson and Fishburne confronted the victims together while Grant served at the getaway driver.
