Fairfax man gets 10 years after Allendale County violent-crime conviction

A Fairfax man is headed to prison for 10 years after a jury convicted him in an Allendale County shooting that left a bystander wounded on Burton Ferry Highway, a violent episode that unfolded in a county estimated at 7,355 residents and in a town of about 1,935 people. The case shows how quickly a gathering can turn into a gun crime with consequences that reach far beyond the original dispute.

The Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office said Xavier Devon Badger, 24, of Beaufort Avenue, was found guilty after a two-day General Sessions jury trial at the Allendale County Courthouse. Circuit Court Judge Carmen T. Mullen imposed the sentence on April 17. Badger was convicted of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Prosecutors said the incident began on Sept. 30, 2024, in the 5000-block of Burton Ferry Highway, where the victim and his wife were seated in their vehicle at a gathering. After the victim saw a man assaulting a woman, he stepped in to try to stop it. The solicitor’s office said Badger then retrieved a firearm and turned his attention to the man who intervened. As the couple tried to flee, shots were fired, and the victim later realized he had been struck in the lower leg and right knee.

Assistant Solicitor Julie Kate Keeney prosecuted the case. A February 2026 General Sessions docket had already listed Badger’s case, 2024GS0300177-00178, as an attempted-murder matter and named the Allendale County Sheriff. The move from a docketed attempted-murder charge to a conviction on violent-crime counts reflects how seriously prosecutors pursued the case through trial.

Burton Ferry Highway runs through a corridor tied to Burton’s Ferry, a crossing local history materials describe as an early gateway between South Carolina and Georgia. In a small county where one violent episode can ripple quickly through a close-knit community, the verdict and sentence closed a case that began as an intervention and ended with a prison term.