Woman murdered husband’s companion in shooting: SC prosecutor

A South Carolina woman is going to prison for decades after her husband’s companion was shot and killed, according to the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

Following a 3-day trial at the Colleton County Courthouse, Michelle Gladys Bingley was found guilty of murder, domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, the solicitor’s office said in a news release.

Circuit Court Judge Donald Hocker sentenced the 43-year-old woman from Walterboro to 35 years in a South Carolina Department of Corrections prison for fatally shooting Tineseing Lachell Johns in 2025, according to the release.

On Oct. 30, Bingley was admitted into Camille Graham Correctional Institution, a women-only, medium-security prison on Broad River Road in Columbia, prison records show.

Prior to the shooting, Bingley believed her husband had been unfaithful, the solicitor’s office said. On April 28, 2025, Bingley used his Google account to locate him at his mother’s Grace Street home, where she found her estranged husband and Johns inside a vehicle, according to the release.

Bingley said she “lost her mind” when he refused to get out of the victim’s vehicle and fired into the car before leaving, the solicitor’s office said.

Walterboro Police officers were dispatched to Grace Street for a report of an unresponsive woman and found Johns on the ground outside her vehicle with a gunshot wound under her arm, according to the release. She died and an autopsy at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston ruled the death a homicide, the solicitor’s office said.

A few days after the shooting, Bingley surrendered to law enforcement, according to the release.

Bingley told investigators “I didn’t mean to do anything. I just did it to scare him,” the solicitor’s office said. Later in the interview, she said, “I killed somebody.”

Bingley discarded the pink revolver along her route before abandoning her vehicle, and the gun was never found, according to the release.

“Domestic violence has devastating and far-reaching consequences for families and communities,” said Assistant Solicitor Tameaka Legette who prosecuted the case. Attorney Jeffrey Stephens was listed as Bingley’s lawyer, Colleton County court records show.

The solicitor’s office said that help is available for anyone who is a victim of domestic abuse. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or text “START” to 88788.