YORK COUNTY, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) – A man back in court on this Wednesday after a deadly holiday arrest, nearly one year ago. 38 y/o Jackie Childers Junior appearing before a judge after an arrest along with two others on Christmas day last year. He’s charged with assaulting and robbing his uncle’s home.
16th Circuit Senior Solicitor Matthew Shelton sharing details from the attacks, which happened on Christmas Day 2020, at Childers’s relatives home on Smith Ford Road in Hickory Grove. When York County Sheriff’s Deputies arrived at the scene, Shelton says, “They spoke with the residents, the only two residents of that home — Billy Childers, who’s present here in the courtroom with his family and his wife Sarah Childers who is deceased. Billy was 75 at the time and Sarah was 72 at the time.”
72 y/o Sarah Childers, died from a heart attack by homicide several days later after the scene broke out. Reports say it all started after a woman, identified as Virginia Ratcliffe, knocked on the Childers’s door, looking for help with a car.
“Two men later identified as Travis Baxter and Jackie Childers came at him and it appears that they had flanked him through the woods — they jumped him as it were, they threw him to the ground,” says Shelton.
Sarah Childers reportedly saw what was happening, ran into the home and was followed by one of the men and wrestled down. A gun, jewelry, cash and a vehicle were said to be stolen. An emotional pastor and spokesman for the family says they are still impacted by the incident.
Pastor Ray Long, of the Hickory Grove community, says, “There will never be closure on the part of this family. What they experienced, loss of a mother,…a loss for the husband.”
The judge says because of Childers’s previous criminal history, in and out-of-state, he did believe him to be a flight risk and a threat to the community.
In the video above, CN2’s Rachel Richardson has more on that bond hearing.
