By Leah Justice

leah.justice@tryondailybulletin.com

After more than three years, Brandon Cody Lee Case, 26, of Saluda pleaded guilty on Tuesday, May 5 to the murder of his best friend, Joshua William Lindsay, who Case admitted to shooting to death in 2012.

Case accepted a plea agreement for second-degree murder in Henderson County Superior Court and was sentenced to 21-and-a-half years to 26 years and 10 months in prison.

Police investigating the case said the murder involved a love triangle, with Case killing Lindsay over having an affair with the mother of Case’s child.

One detective testified that Case and Lindsay had been best friends since childhood but after Case discovered Lindsay and Case’s live-in girlfriend were together, Case drove Lindsay to his home and shot him.

Lindsay was killed on Feb. 22, 2012 at 2643 Macedonia Road in Henderson County.

The case was first considered a suicide after Case’s mother called 911 and told dispatchers that Lindsay was depressed over child support payments and had shot himself.

An autopsy determined Lindsay’s death to be a homicide, not suicide with the report stating the right-handed Lindsay died of a gunshot wound to the left side of his face and neck. Lindsay was shot with a .45 caliber bullet, according to the autopsy, shot from a gun estimated to be held three feet away from him.

Lindsay’s father, William “Randy” Lindsay read a victim impact statement in court Tuesday. Randy Lindsay spoke directly to Case recalling the boys coming to stay with him with they were children.

Randy Lindsay told Case he became a coward who walked up to his son, put a pistol to his head and ended the life of his unarmed and unsuspecting firstborn son.

Randy Lindsay also told Case he deserves to die in prison and he hopes that while in prison Case thinks every day about the life he took and the father Case took away from a baby who was less than a year old.