LEXINGTON, S.C. — A judge at the Lexington County Courthouse in Lexington, S.C., on Wednesday morning, Oct. 7, turned down a bid for post-conviction relief from Treveon Nelson, one of three people convicted in the 2021 kidnapping and killing of 15-year-old Sanaa Amenhotep.
Judge Robert E. Hood denied the application. Nelson, now 20, had pleaded guilty to murder, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. He is serving a 60-year sentence on the murder charge, and that sentence carries no possibility of parole.
On the stand, Nelson argued that his lawyer at the time did not represent him fairly and that he felt pushed by counsel to enter a plea rather than go to trial.
Amenhotep, a freshman at Richland Northeast High School, disappeared from her northeast Richland County apartment complex on April 5, 2021. Investigators determined that Nelson, Nicolle Sanchez-Peralta and Jaylen Wilson took her in a stolen vehicle to a secluded spot near Leesville in Lexington County. Her body was found in a shallow grave on April 28, 2021, after an extensive search. Testimony at Sanchez-Peralta’s trial showed the teen had been beaten and shot 14 times.
A Lexington County jury convicted Sanchez-Peralta of murder and kidnapping, and she received 65 years on the murder charge. Wilson pleaded guilty to the same four charges as Nelson and received 60 years. The state made no plea offers in the case.
Hood directed either the attorney general’s office or Nelson’s counsel to submit a proposed order within 30 days. The case is not finished in the courts: Sanchez-Peralta is set to go before the state Supreme Court next Wednesday to challenge her conviction, and Wilson filed his own motion for post-conviction relief on Oct. 6.