DORCHESTER, S.C. (TCD) — A 64-year-old man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing an 82-year-old family friend because the victim tried to evict him.
South Carolina Solicitor David Pascoe announced March 21 that a jury convicted Nathan Zeigler of the murder of his friend C.J. Young. A judge subsequently sentenced Zeigler to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.
On Jan. 7, 2022, Young reportedly called 911 “begging them to send help to his home.” While he was on the line with dispatchers, Zeigler shot and killed Young. According to the solicitor’s office, Ziegler was reportedly heard on the call yelling, “I told you I wasn’t playing with you.”
The Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office responded to the residence on Johnson Road, where they found Young dead in the kitchen with a gunshot wound to the neck. Law enforcement reportedly found Zeigler in the backyard, as well as a handgun that had been thrown into a grill.
According to the solicitor’s office, Young and Zeigler had been family friends for over 20 years, and Zeigler “was like a son to the victim.” Young reportedly allowed Zeigler to live in his home for free for almost two decades while he moved to New York.
The solicitor’s office said Young retired and then returned to his South Carolina home. He and Zeigler allegedly began “having issues,” and law enforcement had responded to the residence on multiple occasions.
In December 2021, Young gave Zeigler an eviction notice, but Zeigler refused to leave.
During his trial, Zeigler claimed he shot Young in self-defense. However, Lead Assistant Solicitor Shannon Elliott said to the jury, “this was not self-defense, this was a senseless murder.”
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