On February 24, 2022 Jimae Neely, 31, was found not guilty of a double murder. Jimae’s not guilty verdict was by reason of insanity. Jimae was accused of murdering Robin Thompson and Timothy Barber in 2019 at a home in York County, South Carolina.
Jimae said voices were telling him to shoot people. In June 2019 Jimae, Robin, and Timothy were about to go to a cabinet store, when suddenly Robin and Timothy were shot dead.
Jimae left the scene, but cops tried to pull him over on the same day. A shootout then began. Jimae was eventually arrested following the shootout with cops. Jimae was charged with double murder and attempted murder on a police officer.
In 2022 Jimae pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
According to court testimony, Robin and Timothy were brothers-in-law who were picking up custom cabinets from a man’s home. That is when Jimae was accused of shooting and killing the men in an alleged random attack.
At Jimae’s 2022 court trial a doctor testified that Jimae has the mental illness Schizophrenia. Jimae said in medical records that he heard voices in his head telling him to shoot people, and that there were shadow people chasing him.
Jimae told mental health doctors that if he shot people then he would turn invisible. In a final court ruling the judge found Jimae not guilty by way of insanity.
Jimae will likely now serve a few months in a mental health facility, and then be released back out onto the streets. Dionte Long was found not guilty by way of insanity after his mother Marcella Thrash, 50, was murdered in Charlotte, NC.
