How a Murder Victim’s Snapchat Video Led to Conviction of Her Ex, Who Stalked Her Despite Court Order

Months before killing Donasia Alexus Holloway, Justin Cole Carroll had been charged with assaulting her. Then, he got out on bail

• Justin Cole Carroll was first convicted of first-degree assault and battery as a teenager in 2016

• He met Donasia Alexus Holloway shortly after getting out of prison for the conviction

• Months into their relationship, Carroll became violent, and, in January 2021, a judge issued a no-contact order after Holloway accused him of assaulting her. Months later, she was dead

Seven minutes before bullets were fired into her locked car, Donasia Alexus Holloway shot a video of her ex-boyfriend stalking her outside her apartment building.

“Followed me to my apt and I saw him behind me & locked myself in the car,” she typed quickly into Snapchat, per evidence later shared by prosecutors. “I have asked him multiple times to leave me alone, trying not to be fed but this has to stop!!”

That video became key evidence in the 2021 murder case, leading to her ex-boyfriend’s arrest and conviction.

Justin Cole Carroll, now 24, was found guilty of Holloway’s murder Wednesday, April 24, and sentenced to 60 years behind bars, according to the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office in Waterboro, S.C.

“Donasia tried to end this toxic relationship, and she tried to protect herself from her ex-boyfriend’s jealous rage,” prosecutor Hunter Swanson said in a statement. “But Justin Carroll refused to take no for an answer. He ignored a no-contact order, stalked her and killed her.”

The two had dated for several months in late 2020, when Holloway ended the relationship after Carroll was charged with domestic assault against her, according to prosecutors.

It was not the first time he's been accused of violence against women. In 2016, he was sentenced to eight years probation for first-degree assault and battery, and, when his probation was revoked because he was found to be in possession of a gun and a controlled substance, he served three years behind bars on the conviction. Prosecutors say he had recently been released when he began dating Holloway.

Following the January 2021 charge, a judge issued a no-contact order between the couple.

But by May of that year, Carroll was out on bail.

At around 10 p.m. May 22, as Holloway returned from a beach vacation, she spotted Carroll’s pickup truck following her into the Forest Point Apartment complex parking lot, per prosecutors.

Locking herself inside her car, she parked beside a Walterboro police cruiser and posted the video of Carroll approaching her car.

Minutes later, Carroll shot through her car windows, striking Holloway four times in the head and neck.

The police officer whose cruiser she had parked beside ran outside to find Holloway dead in her front seat, per prosecutors.

Security footage caught Carroll walking up to her car, and multiple witnesses told police they saw a man running to his pickup truck and driving off in the moments after shots were fired, per prosecutors.

Within hours of the shooting, law enforcement stopped Carroll at a traffic light and tested his hands for gunshot residue.

He told officers that he had traveled to Charleston that day, but, when authorities pressed for more details, he asked for a lawyer.

Officers found no weapons inside his vehicle, and with insufficient evidence to charge Carroll, they eventually released him.

Then, two days later, investigators saw Holloway’s Snapchat video — and they noticed something odd: Carroll in the video had a head full of hair, but the man they had arrested hours later was clean-shaven.

Authorities determined that Carroll had been in the midst of changing his appearance when officers caught up with him the first time.

But he had not yet had time to properly clean his hands. Lab tests also revealed gunshot residue on Carroll’s right hand.

Investigators also determined that he had wiped his cell phone clean.

Sixteen witnesses testified over three days of testimony at the Colleton County Courthouse.

But, Holloway's mother says it is too little too late.

“If he would have stayed in jail, our daughter would have been here today,” Shameka Holloway told WCSC. “It’s just so sad, [to] know how the system works. It’s awful, they need to do better.”

She added: “We have a life sentence of heartache and pain that we will carry for the rest of our life.”

The 14th Circuit Victim Services Center offers shelter accommodations, counseling, financial aid and legal assistance with restraining orders and child custody matters. You may reach them at 843-790-6220 or 1-800-868-2632.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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