BEAUFORT, S.C. — A jury in Beaufort County on Wednesday convicted Bernard Garvin Jr., 35, of Hilton Head Island, of attempted murder for shooting a woman in the head during a 2023 dispute outside a Hilton Head Island apartment complex. The sentence is 20 years behind bars, with five years of probation after release.
The jury also found Garvin guilty on a related weapons count tied to a violent crime. The 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office prosecuted the case, and the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office handled the investigation.
The shooting happened on June 9, 2023, at Hilton Head Gardens, a set of apartments along Southwood Park Drive. Deputies who arrived found blood and shell casings on the pavement and a minivan struck by gunfire, according to the solicitor’s office.
Investigators said the woman had stepped out of a vehicle and confronted Garvin, who was struggling with another woman over a bottle of liquor, and the two traded words. Garvin then drew a 9mm handgun and fired at least four times, and one round grazed her head. After a stop at Hilton Head Hospital, she was sent on to a Savannah hospital and cared for in intensive care.
Witnesses named Garvin as the gunman. Authorities caught up with him in Stockbridge, Ga., on Sept. 26, 2023, and he was brought back to South Carolina to face the charges. Earlier convictions on his record date to 2011, among them assault and battery and shooting into a vehicle.
Filed under: Hilton Head Island SC Crime News
