Additional Arrests in Utica Mill Hill Homicide in September

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office has filed additional charges and has made additional arrests in relation to its continuing investigation of a double homicide that occurred on the Utica Mill Hill in September. On Sept. 10, the Sheriff’s Office responded to 14 Padgett Street in regards to the shooting deaths of 54-year-old Timothy Wayne Caldwell and 29-year-old David Thomas Tranah. The next day, 18-year-old Steven Lee Reynolds of 3 Padgett Street was arrested and charged with two counts of murder in regards to the double homicide. Reynolds was also served with three outstanding arrest warrants on unrelated drug charges. He has been held at the Oconee County Detention Center since that time as he was denied bond on all five charges. On Sept. 22, and Sept. 24, respectively, the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office arrested 36-year-old Matthew Carlton Moss of Stribling Shoals Road and 23-year-old Sara Haley Stephens on a charge each of accessory after the fact of a felony in relation to the same investigation in regards to the assistance they provided Reynolds after the shooting. On Sept. 25, the Sheriff’s Office obtained additional charges against Reynolds in relation to the double homicide. Reynolds was served in the Detention Center with two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime for displaying and shooting both victims with a firearm. Reynolds was also charged with one count of armed robbery for taking the wallet of one of the victims, Timothy Caldwell, by use of force with a firearm. Reynolds was also denied bond on those three charges. Last Thursday, as a result of evidence obtained in the continuing investigation, an investigator from the Criminal Investigations Division obtained arrest warrants against 19-year-old Jeremy Alexander Trotter and 19-year-old Eliyah Kiana Rogers, both of Harry’s Drive in Westminster, charging them each with two counts of murder. Trotter was also charged two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime while both Trotter and Rogers were charged with one count each of armed robbery. Trotter and Rogers were present when the crime occurred and are liable for murder and armed robbery. Trotter was himself armed with a firearm, according to the arrest warrants. Trotter has been in custody at the Detention Center since Sept. 10, as he was booked in on that date after investigators, who were investigating the double homicide, went to an address on East Wesley Street in Walhalla to speak with Trotter, who was a person of interest in the investigation. Trotter removed a clear plastic baggie from his person, which contained a quantity of methamphetamine and was arrested. Trotter was given a $25,000 surety bond on the drug charge. He was also later served with a Bench Warrant from the City of Walhalla. He was denied bond on the charges brought against by the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office in relation to the Padgett Street double homicide. Rogers was arrested by deputies from the Warrants Division and booked into the Oconee County Detention Center. “The reason that Trotter and Rogers have been charged with murder and the additional charges in the Padgett Street double homicide investigation is that they went with Reynolds to the incident scene knowing that a crime was going to be committed at the Padgett Street address and aided and abetted Reynolds in that regard, even though Trotter nor Rogers did not physically shoot either Tim Caldwell or David Tranah” says Captain Greg Reed of the Criminal Investigations Division of the Sheriff’s Office. “According to the law in this case, the hand of one is the hand of all.” Also arrested by the Sheriff’s Office is 20-year-old Gregory James Trotter, Jr. of East Wesley Street in Walhalla on a charge of accessory after the fact of a felony in regards to his role in helping to conceal a vehicle that was used in the Padgett Street double homicide thereby assisting Rogers and Jeremy Trotter while knowing both subjects had committed a felony. The vehicle in question was discovered on Sept. 10, at a location on Pickens Highway near Walhalla. The Sheriff’s Office is also seeking the public’s help in locating a subject, 54-year-old Gregory Gene Trotter of East Wesley Street, on a charge of accessory after the fact of a felony in regards to the same investigation. Anyone with any information on the whereabouts of Gregory Gene Trotter is asked to call Crimestoppers at 1-888-CRIME- SC or the Sheriff’s Office at 864-638-4111. In an unrelated incident, Reynolds and Jeremy Trotter have also been charged with one count each of malicious injury to personal property in regards to causing damage to a vehicle that is the property of the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office by shooting at the vehicle with a firearm causing damage to that vehicle at an address in the Seneca area. The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is continuing its investigation.