Woman sentenced after tracking down her estranged husband and fatally shooting his female companion

1. Home
2. Crime
3. Woman sentenced after tracking down her estranged husband and fatally shooting his female companion

Crime

By Linda Ikeji 3 November 2026, 4:58 pm 0 comments

A South Carolina woman who tracked down her estranged husband and fatally shot his companion after finding them together in a car has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Michelle Gladys Bingley, 43, was convicted of murder and other charges Thursday in the April 28, 2025 murder of Tineseing Lachell Johns. 

The shooting happened during a late-night confrontation in Walterboro, according to the 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office.

Bingley turned herself in several days after the shooting. 

During an interview with investigators, she said she believed her husband had been unfaithful and used his Google account to locate him at his mother’s home, prosecutors said.

She found him in Johns’ car and told investigators she “lost her mind” when he refused to get out. 

Bingley said she fired into the vehicle but did not intend to hurt either person.

“I didn’t mean to do anything,” she told investigators. “I just did it to scare him.”

Later in the interview, Bingley acknowledged, “I murdered somebody,” according to prosecutors. 

She also said she discarded the pink revolver used in the shooting before abandoning her vehicle. The gun was not recovered.

Walterboro police officers were called at about 11:30 p.m. for a report of an unresponsive woman. 

They found Johns outside her vehicle with a gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead, and an autopsy determined she died from the gunshot wound.

During Bingley’s three-day trial at the Colleton County Courthouse, a police sergeant testified that investigators recovered a .38-caliber bullet from Johns’ vehicle. 

A bullet removed during the autopsy was consistent with a revolver, prosecutors said. 

The court handed down the sentence on October 29, 2026.

In addition to murder, Bingley was convicted of 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.