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Stories here are reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Wife, in jail already for killing second husband, is convicted after 30 years of shooting her first husband in Winnsboro
Woman charged in murder-for-hire scheme freed on bond in Cayce
Prosecutors may seek death penalty against Walhalla woman
Woman charged with murder in arson slaying of her father in Tarboro
Woman charged with arson after setting house and boyfriend on fire in Anderson
Teenager sentenced to six years after setting her boyfriend on fire in Cleveland
Woman angry at boyfriend torches apartment building, five killed in Charlotte
Lancaster woman shoots boyfriend in the heart
Wife and hit man she hired sentenced to 20 years for attempted murder of husband in Anderson
Myrtle Beach woman sets car on fire after argument with boyfriend
Domestic dispute leaves man with bloody nose in Myrtle Beach
Woman attacks ex-husband in Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach woman assaults boyfriend and police officer
Mount Pleasant woman cut ex-husband, police say
Domestic violence worker kills her whole family in Lexington County
Ms. Lovett kept guns and drugs
Car strikes couple after fight at bar in Summerville
Anderson woman kills man in domestic dispute
Three charged with trying to help woman cover up killing of her live-in boyfriend in Orangeburg County
Lancaster woman jailed in boyfriend's stabbing
Rock Hill woman pleads guilty in stabbing death of boyfriend
Columbia woman, 64, charged with shooting, killing husband
Greenwood County woman charged with homicide in death of her boyfriend
Charleston immigrant woman receives 10 years after murder for hire conviction
Gray Court man shot, killed by wife
Belton woman accused of beating common-law husband to death with vacuum cleaner
Sumter woman pleads guilty to stabbing former boyfriend to death
York County woman gets five years in prison for threatening judge, other officials after domestic violence and assault convictions
Camden woman sought in murder of ex-husband
Camden woman confesses to killing ex-husband
Lugoff woman charged with hiding sister who is charged with murder
Wife charged with murder in death of Shaw Air Force Base airman
West Columbia woman charged with killing her boyfriend
Husband shot to death in Greenville, wife charged with murder
Columbia woman in jail after stabbing boyfriend
Woman charged with murder in Clover stabbing
Pickens woman gets 15 years in prison for killing boyfriend
Whitmire woman charged with setting ex-husband on fire
Woman pleads guilty in 2005 Myrtle Beach stabbing death of her boyfriend
Bluffton man assaulted after writing on sleeping wife
Aiken woman accused of hiring man to kill her husband
Lexington County woman charged with shooting and killing her husband
Wife, another man charged with killing her husband in Myrtle Beach
Marietta woman says Jesus told her to kill her common-law husband
Newberry County woman accused of poisoning husband
Abstracted from story by Jesse J. Holland, Associated Press Writer
November 20, 1996, Winnsboro (AP) — The case began nearly 30 years ago with a question: How could a paralyzed man with only slight movement in a hand put a rifle in his mouth and pull the trigger? Jurors answered it Wednesday: He couldn't.
Frances Truesdale, now 54, sat silently as she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 1967 killing of her husband, Ronald "Little Red" Beasley.
Truesdale is already serving a 20-year sentence in Virginia for the 1988 murder of her second husband, Jerry Truesdale, whom she married about a month after Beasley died.
In July 1967, Mrs. Truesdale told police her then-29-year-old husband loaded a .22-caliber rifle and fired at her, then put the rifle in his mouth and blew his brains out.
However, Little Red suffered a stroke a few months before his death. He could not walk or feed himself and wore diapers, and he required around-the-clock care. Friends said he had only slight movement in one hand.
"Shooting himself was physically impossible for him. How could he do it?" asked Fairfield County Sheriff Herman Young.
Truesdale's second husband, Jerry Truesdale, was shot to death in 1988 while driving a van in Roanoke, Virginia. She said he was shot from a passing car, but a jury convicted her of second-degree murder in 1992.
The Virginia investigation brought the questions about Little Red's death back into the open. And when Sheriff Young took office in 1992, one of the first things he did was reopen the Beasley case.
"Twenty-nine years is a long time to wait, but as long as justice is done, it's not too long," Young said.
Truesdale is eligible for parole within the next few months in Virginia and will start her sentence in South Carolina if released.
September 28, 1988 — A Cayce woman who allegedly wanted to hire someone to kill the former girlfriend of her estranged husband was freed on bond Tuesday.
Mary Catherine Boltin, 34, of 1241 Axtell Drive was charged Friday with solicitation to commit murder, Capt. Bob Ford of the Lexington County Sheriff's Department said.
She was released on a $25,000 surety bond.
July 1, 1990 —Authorities say they may seek the death penalty for a woman charged with the murder of her husband, a crime carried out by two hired gunmen from North Carolina.
During a hearing Friday, Judge Clyde Eltzroth denied bond for Patricia Darlene Moore Jordan, 38, of Walhalla. She is charged with murder in connection with the June 2 shooting death of Robert Jordan, 31.
August 29, 1990 — A Jasper County woman has been charged with murder in the arson slaying of her father earlier this month.
Irene Parker, 31, is charged with murder, assault with intent to kill, and arson after a car exploded and burned at her Tarboro residence August 15.
Ms. Parker is believed to have thrown an explosive substance on the car in which her father, Richmond Tyson, 72; her nephew, Richard Tyson, 2; and her sister-in-law, Marguerite Tyson; were sitting.
January 7, 1991 — An Anderson woman remained in jail Sunday after she was charged with first-degree arson for allegedly attempting to set her boyfriend on fire by throwing a flaming kerosene-soaked rag at him, officials said.
Ruth Arlene White, 28, walked into the police department just before midnight Friday and admitted setting her home on fire, and attempting to set her live-in boyfriend on fire as well, according to police reports.
January 18, 1991 — A woman charged with killing her 20-year-old boyfriend by setting him on fire while he slept last summer pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter Wednesday.
Belinda Oates, 18, was committed for six years as a youthful offender, according to information from the Cleveland County Superior Court clerk`s office. Oates appeared before Judge John Gardner.
Oates could serve from one day to the full six years of her sentence, according to the clerk's office.
August 1, 1991 — An apartment building went up in flames early Wednesday, killing four adults and a toddler. A woman who residents said was angry at a boyfriend in the building was arrested on arson and murder charges.
The fire in the Poinciana Apartments left dozens of residents, mostly low-income and elderly, with nowhere to go.
August 19, 1998, Charleston (States News Service) — A Lancaster man is dead and his girlfriend is in jail awaiting a bond hearing for his murder. Forty-two-year-old Betty Whiteside reportedly shot Max Morris in the heart. They had been dating for several years. The couple was at a party before the shooting and witnesses say everything seemed fine when the couple left.
November 16, 1998, Anderson (States News Service) — A Dadeville, Alabama woman and a hit man she hired to kill her husband will spend the next 20 years in South Carolina prisons. Sissy Sanders and co-defendant Martin Rodriguez of Anderson, South Carolina were found guilty of trying to kill ex-husband Patrick Sanders at their daughter's birthday party in South Carolina last spring. Sissy Sanders had hired Rodriguez to kill Patrick Sanders from long range with a high-powered rifle.
December 3, 1998, Sun News — A Myrtle Beach woman was charged with third-degree arson after she allegedly set her car on fire after arguing with her boyfriend, said Myrtle Beach police Detective Richard F. Beatty.
Susan Casey, 38, of 6210 Frontage Road, Apartment A, was arrested Wednesday and charged, police said. Casey had been sharing her car with her boyfriend when they argued, Beatty said.
November 2, 1999 — A 19-year-old man and 29-year-old woman argued at a Neely Drive residence in Conway because she said he looked at another woman. He said he grabbed her and threw her on the bed. She said he got a knife and told her to kill him. She tried to get away from him, but he cornered her. She grabbed the knife from him and stabbed him in the chest area. She said he had choked her. She was arrested and he was taken to the hospital, where he received two stitches.
November 27, 1999 — About 5:10 PM, police responded to a domestic situation at 400 N. Ocean Blvd., Unit 806 in Myrtle Beach. When officers exited the elevator, they heard someone yelling for help. Officers entered the residence, which they found in disarray. Police found a woman on top of a man, hitting him and scratching him on the head and shoulders. She yelled at him, "I'm going to kill you!" The woman, who was intoxicated, was arrested for criminal domestic violence.
The fight reportedly started because the woman accused the man of having an affair. She became violent and tore apart the condominium. The victim called the condo's receptionist and asked her to call the police. The victim stated that they had been divorced for more than a year, but had kept in contact with each other after the divorce.
The woman, who is from Columbia, said they had agreed to meet at his condo for the weekend.
November 28, 1999 — A 26-year-old woman said her 25-year-old boyfriend verbally assaulted her and spit on her at a Second Avenue South residence. He denied spitting on her. The man had blood coming from his nose, but she said this was because he yelled so loudly.
December 11, 199 9 — Police responded about 1:45 AM to 203 Second Ave. S. in Myrtle Beach after a wallet was reported missing. The wallet turned out to be lost.
When police started to leave, a woman and her boyfriend began arguing. The woman began cursing and shouting at her boyfriend and tried to assault him. When the officer stopped her, she hit him in the chin. The woman was taken to jail. She and her boyfriend were drunk.
© 2003 Glenn Smith, Charleston Post and Courier
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
February 1, 2003
— A 35-year-old woman is accused of slicing off a piece of her ex-husband's scalp with an 8-inch butcher knife during a fight early Friday at their Heathland Way home, police said.
Helen Edgerton also is accused of striking his head with a glass vase, leaving a deep gash, police said. She was drunk when the incident occurred, police said.
Ms. Edgerton, a real estate worker, is charged with assault and battery with intent to kill. Magistrate Jack Guedalia set bail at $20,000 after her lawyer, Andy Savage, said that Ms. Edgerton would move from the home and get counseling.
Ms. Edgerton and her husband, Mike Edgerton, divorced in 1995 after three years of marriage, but began living together again in October by mutual agreement, police said. The Edgertons have two children, ages 9 and 10, Savage said.
Mike Edgerton, 50, told police that his ex-wife returned home at 2:20 AM, rang the doorbell several times and then left. She returned to the house a short time later and tried several times to get in, according to a police report.
Mike Edgerton let her in, and they argued in the kitchen, police said. He told police that she threw a vase at the back of his head as he walked away from her.
Mike Edgerton ran upstairs, but his ex-wife followed him and slashed him with a knife, police said. He struggled with Helen Edgerton, disarmed her and then ran from the house, said Detective Craig Harris.
Mr. Edgerton is 6 inches taller and 60 pounds heavier than his ex-wife, a police report said.
Officers found Helen Edgerton inside a car near the home, Harris said. The knife was found on the lawn of a neighbor's home, police said.
Abstracted from an article by Clif LeBlanc, Staff Writer
© 2003 The State
Friday, May 2, 2003 — Tammie Lovett, a 27-year-old social worker in domestic violence for five years at Sistercare, was also a depressed, first-time mother who exploded under the strain of raising an infant, investigators said Thursday.
The violence that destroyed the family took about 10 minutes, Lexington County Sheriff James Metts said, explaining a sequence of events he said are the investigators' best guesses from the evidence and neighbors' accounts:
• The shooting started at 1:45 AM in the quiet McGregor Downs Mobile Home Park just off Augusta Highway.
• Ms. Lovett got her .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol and fired twice at her son.
• Somehow, the bullets missed.
• So Ms. Lovett placed a pillow over the baby, who was face down in his bed, and pulled the trigger twice more. "The pillow, we think, was a dehumanizing thing," Sheriff Metts said. " She couldn't shoot the child straight on."
• This time, she shot her 7-month-old infant son, Judah, in the head and back.
• The 27-year-old Tammie then gunned down her mother, Betty Lovett, age 53, who rushed in from another bedroom in the mobile home. Her mother had moved in two months ago to help with the child, and died of shots to the neck, stomach and head fired by her 27-year-old daughter according Lexington County Coroner Harry Harman.
• Wade Henley, Tammie Lovett's 28-year-old husband, never made it from the hallway into the master bedroom. Sheriff Metts said Henley was found dead near the back door from a single gunshot wound.
Things were quiet for about seven minutes according to a neighbor's accounts. Then came the last of what the neighbor described as nine loud knocks.
Tammie Lovett had put the large-caliber gun into her mouth. It was her final shot, the sheriff said.
Almost four days later, deputies found her sitting in a chair across the master bedroom from the crib, the gun in her hand.
The victims' family members told detectives the gun used in the murder-suicide belonged to Tammie Lovett, sheriff's spokesman John Allard said.
While officers haven't found documentation of a purchase, Tammie Lovett and Wade Henley liked going to gun and knife shows, Allard said.
A second gun, a .40-caliber pistol, was found in the glove compartment of Lovett's car, Allard said.
Inside the home detectives found open boxes of .380 ammunition and small amounts of crack cocaine and marijuana, the sheriff said. But investigators didn't yet know whether anyone had used drugs that night.
Sheriff Metts also said he believes Lovett had postpartum depression, but would not say whether Lovett had been diagnosed with the disorder or was taking medication.
The State staff writers Maurice Thomas and Rick Brundrett contributed to this article.
Story last updated at 10:30 PM Thursday, July 10, 2003.
by Glenn Smith of The Post and Courier Staff
© 2003 Charleston Post and Courier
Thursday, July 10, 2003, Summerville — A woman slammed her car into two people early Wednesday after a fight at a local bar, sending the pair onto the vehicle's hood and seriously injuring a man, police said.
The incident came just three days after another woman allegedly rammed her car into an ex-boyfriend and his girlfriend at a movie theater after a fight, killing the girl and critically injuring the other.
Summerville police Lt. Craig Legates said there is nothing to connect the two attacks, which have shocked this suburban community.
"It's just a horrible coincidence," he said. "If you told me Sunday night before I went to bed that all this would happen, I would have told you that you were crazy."
The latest incident occurred after a dispute involving several women at Meghan O'Malley's bar turned into a fight that spilled into the parking lot of the Bacon's Bridge Road club shortly before 4 a.m., police said.
Michelle Floyd, 29, of Summerville, climbed into her Honda Civic, said, "I'll settle this," and instructed another woman to climb in with her, according to a police report. She then backed from a parking space, drove forward and struck Kenneth Campbell, 39, and Alison Hubbard, 23, police said.
Hubbard was involved in the dispute that broke out at the bar, and Campbell was trying to break up the quarrel in the parking lot, police said.
The two Summerville residents ended up on the hood of Floyd's car and traveled several feet before Campbell fell off and hit the pavement, police said. Hubbard rode on the hood through the parking lot before falling off at Bacon's Bridge Road and Stallsville Loop, a police report states.
When police arrived, Campbell was lying in the parking lot, bleeding from head injuries. He was taken to Trident Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition Wednesday afternoon, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Hubbard had cuts and scrapes on her knees and elbows but was not seriously injured, police said.
Her lawyer, Jim Brauchle, said Hubbard received numerous cuts and visited an emergency room for X-rays.
"She's pretty shook up, and she's kind of in shock that something like this would happen," he said.
Police arrested Floyd and were finalizing the charges against her late Wednesday, Legates said. She was expected to have a bail hearing today, he said.
Police were trying to determine exactly how the pair ended up on the hood of the car, what sparked the fight and what role alcohol may have played in the incident, Legates said.
"It's a bar at 4 AM, so you can imagine all the statements we're getting," he said. "We don't have a solid understanding of everything yet, and that's why we're taking our time. We have a lot of work to do to put it all together."
Brauchle said Hubbard doesn't know Floyd or Campbell. He said he didn't know what prompted the bar fight.
"We're allowing the police to investigate and will let the details come out through their investigation," he said.
No one at Meghan O'Malley's would discuss the incident Wednesday evening. The bar is a private club in a strip mall.
Jane Leeson, a neighbor of Campbell, described him as a helpful, caring man who lives alone and looks out for his neighbors. When Leeson's husband died, Campbell helped her with mechanical problems and other tasks. She was not sure what he does for a living, but said he has passion for racing a Chevy pickup truck he owns.
"It's tragic," she said. "You couldn't ask for a better neighbor."
Just three days before the incident, 17-year-old Cynthia Meagan Bowen and her boyfriend, Curtis Raymond Stock, also 17, were hit by a car outside of the Movies 8 Oakbrook theater on Ladson Road. Bowen died at the scene, and Stock is in intensive care at Medical University of South Carolina.
Rebecca Paige Oswalt, 18, of North Charleston, Stock's ex-girlfriend, remains in jail and could face the death penalty if convicted of murder.
Witnesses told Summerville police that Oswalt ran over the couple with her car as they walked down the sidewalk after a heated argument between Oswalt and Stock in the theater's parking lot.
"Obviously, the dynamics of these two incidents are completely different, but the coincidence is unreal," Legates said.
Staff writer Phillip Caston contributed to this story.
Wednesday, October 29, 2003 (AP) — An Anderson man was shot to death in a domestic dispute. Ronald Lee Grant, 34, bled to death Friday after being shot once in the chest at the home he shared with Angela Marie Vaughn, county Deputy Coroner Don McCown said.
In an October 4, 2003, sheriff's report, Ms. Vaughn said Grant grabbed her wrist, twisted her arm, and held her to the ground during an argument. At her trial Ms. Vaughn claimed that she thought Grant was reaching for a gun when she shot him.
Prosecutors said blood patterns and the bullet's path indicated he was sitting on the couch when he was shot from the side.
On January 19, 2006, a jury convicted 39-year-old Angela Vaughn of murder after deliberating for four hours. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison after the two-day trial.
© 2004 WSOCTV — Charlotte News and Weather
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
March 24, 2004 — Orangeburg County sheriff's deputies say they have charged three people with helping a woman cover up the killing of her live-in boyfriend.
Sheriff Larry Williams says one of the suspects tried to help Carol Lee McCollum burn the home where she shot and killed Robert Lancaster. Williams says the other two suspects sheltered McCollum from officers.
All three have been charged with accessory after the fact of murder.
Deputies say Ms. McCollum shot Lancaster in the back while he slept last week.
Deputies say Sylvia Ann Murphy helped ms. McCollum pour gasoline through the house and leave a pan of grease on the stove to ignite the blaze. Ms. Murphy also has been charged with attempted arson.
Deputies say Karen Nettles and John Hydrick Fogle hid Ms. McCollum from authorities after Lancaster's body was found.
© 2004 by Wendy Bigham, The Herald
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
April 6, 2004 — A 38-year-old woman was in jail Monday after police said she stabbed a man at her Pardue Street home over the weekend.
Rose Cunningham of 605 Pardue St. in Lancaster was charged with assault and battery with intent to kill. She was being held at the Lancaster County Detention Center on a $50,000 bond.
The 48-year-old male victim was flown to a Charlotte hospital but was later discharged.
Around 6 PM Saturday, Lancaster police officers found the man in Cunningham's kitchen with two stab wounds according to a report at the Lancaster Police Department.
He had two steak knife wounds the report stated, one in his upper chest, and one on his right side between the waist and underarm below his rib cage. The man was transported to Springs Memorial Hospital and then airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
Officers saw Cunningham standing at the top of the stairs and arrested her, the report stated. Investigators in the case were unavailable Monday to comment on a possible motive.
Cunningham's older sister, Gina Cunningham, said the victim was Rose Cunningham's boyfriend for at least the last six months. "They got along good," Gina Cunningham said.
Rose Cunningham has a daughter and volunteers at a Christian center in Lancaster, her sister said.
Contact Wendy Bigham at 329-4068 or wbigham@heraldonline.com.
Abstracted from The State.com
April 8, 2004, York (AP) — A Rock Hill woman pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter after prosecutors said she fatally stabbed her boyfriend.
Loretta Gordon Wilson, 39, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison in the July, 2003, stabbing death of 46-year-old Robert McClure.
Defense attorneys said Ms. Wilson was the victim of abuse and had to defend herself against McClure during a fight. Prosecutors said Wilson planned to kill her boyfriend, laying out three knives and telling witnesses she would get him.
© 2004 WISTV.com
April 12, 2004 — Columbia Police say a 64-year-old woman shot her husband in the left shoulder during a domestic dispute on Sunday. He died at 11:30 AM at Palmetto Richland Hospital, and she is charged with murder.
Police say Marrie E.Goodwin shot Tommy Goodwin in the left shoulder at their home on Pine Needle Road in Columbia just after 11:00 AM Sunday.
Marrie E.Goodwin was arrested, charged with murder and taken to a hospital to check her mental state. She is being held in Richland County's Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.
© 2004 TheCarolinaChannel.com
July 8, 2004 —Deputies in Greenwood County have charged a woman with homicide in the death of her boyfriend.
A spokesman for the Sheriff's Office said 50-year-old Rose May Brown shot and killed her boyfriend, 63-year-old James Perrin Thursday, July 7 th , after an argument.
Ms. Brown called for help from a pay phone a few blocks from her house. When a deputy responded it was apparent something was wrong.
"One of our deputies did talk to her. She requested a ride to her residence (and) while he was speaking to her, it was determined something was not right," said Investigator Marc Cromer, with the Greenwood County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies said they found Mr. Perrin on the ground outside Ms. Brown's house on Cedar Grove Road with a gunshot wound to the head. They then took Ms. Brown into custody but don't know the exact motive for the shooting, or where the murder weapon is.
Investigators said it wasn't the first time they have visited the house. "Our uniform patrol has responded to that area for domestics...between the victim and the suspect in the past," Cromer said.
November 6, 2004 — I was arrested for pushing my girlfriend onto the bed after she was punching me and had pushed me up against the window. I thought the glass was going to break and I was going to fall through.
She then called 911 and I was arrested for criminal domestic violence and made to leave my home even though I was the one beaten up. I was out of my own house of 20 years for over two months and had to get a court order to reenter.
My (now ex) girlfriend is from Costa Rica and is presently getting her citizenship, and her son's (he was denied a visa previously), under "The Battered Spouse Clause" of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Also, I now have the victims awareness group and a Spanish group funding her war against me.
I am 54-years old and, other than a speeding ticket, have never been arrested or broken a law in my life. I've paid taxes for almost 40 years. She has never paid a tax dollar but she is now eligible for a grant of $25,000 from the State of South Carolina. Additionally, as far as the court is concerned, it's the State of South Carolina versus. me.
Unfortunately, in South Carolina no judge can appear to be soft on domestic violence. All men so charged are guilty until proven innocent. But proving your innocence is practically impossible after being thrown out of your own home and denied access to virtually everything you own.
Did I mention she had a boyfriend across town?
As for me, I'm awaiting a jury trial for domestic violence.
January 4, 2006 (AP) — A Russian immigrant in Charleston convicted of trying to hire a man to kill her former lover has been sentenced to ten years in federal prison.
44-year-old Victoria Yaitsky was convicted last June of plotting to kill Paolo Milinesky, one of her former employees. The man she tried to hire for $50,000 tipped off the FBI.
Yaitsky was sentenced in federal court in Charleston on Tuesday, getting the maximum penalty sought by prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Ms. Yaitsky was a doctor who emigrated from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia ten years ago.
January 5, 2006 (AP) — A Gray Court man has been shot to death and Laurens County sheriff's deputies have arrested his wife.
Deputies were called to the home of 58-year-old Michael Tumblin Tuesday night.
Sheriff Ricky Chastain says emergency medical service workers treated Tumblin but he died a short time later. Coroner Nick Nichols says Tumblin died about 9:00 PM from a single gunshot wound to the lung.
57-year-old Judy Tumblin has been charged with murder. Chastain says the couple had argued before the shooting. Deputies found a gun they think was used in the shooting.
According to the March 1, 2006, edition of the Charlotte Observer, police have charged a woman with murder after the coroner said she used a vacuum cleaner to beat her common-law husband, then choked him to death. Evelyn Tina Pressley, 54, was arrested Sunday after police found Jerome Powers, 53, dead at the home the two shared in Belton.
A preliminary autopsy report shows Ms. Pressley hit Powers with the vacuum, knocking him unconscious, then choked him with her knee or hands, Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said.
Deputies noted that some of the vacuum's attachments might also have been involved.
April 21, 2006 (AP) — A Sumter woman has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after she pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors say 21-year-old Shemeka Haynesworth stabbed 20-year-old Tyrell Bradley with a kitchen knife in the bedroom of another woman's home.
Ms. Haynesworth arrived at the woman's home on the night of the stabbing in August 2003 and found Bradley hiding inside.
Prosecutors say Ms. Haynesworth stabbed Bradley in the chest, piercing his left lung and heart.
April 22, 2006 (AP) — A York County woman appeared set to get probation for threatening a judge and several officials until she told the judge that would be a mistake. He then sentenced her to five years in prison.
Brandi White, 28, is serving a 15-year prison sentence for threatening her probation officer after domestic violence and assault convictions.
She pled guilty but mentally ill Friday for making written threats against the same probation officer, as well as a jailer and Circuit Judge John C. Hayes III. Hayes sentenced her in the original case.
Public defender Melissa Inzerillo said Ms. White made the threats after she stopped taking her medication around the anniversary of the 2004 sentencing.
May 18, 2006 — Lexington County Sheriff's investigators are searching for a 50-year-old Camden woman who is wanted on arrest warrants for murder and possessing a firearm during the commission of a violent crime in connection with the killing of her 62-year-old ex-husband on Wednesday night at his home on Bushberry Road near Pelion.
Lexington County Sheriff James Metts says investigators are working to find and arrest Ann Baxley Smith. The sheriff has requested assistance from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and US Marshals Service.
Lexington County deputies think Ms. Baxley may be in her hometown of Camden or in the area of her sister in Georgia
Investigators think Smith might be driving a gray or silver 2003 Ford F-150 extended cab pickup, with South Carolina license plate 736-PRU. Smith is described as 5'2" tall and weighing around 140 pounds. She has gray hair and hazel eyes.
Woodrow Smith was pronounced dead at Lexington Medical Center on Wednesday night. A Lexington County EMS crew had transported him to the hospital for medical treatment.
Woodrow Smith had been working in his yard when Ann Smith showed up at his home, Metts said. After being shot, Woodrow told a witness that Ann had shot him and asked the witness to call 911.
The victim's daughter says her father called deputies often about his ex-wife's behavior, "She constantly harassed us, threatening phone calls, threatening to burn our house down, kill us, left messages on machines threatening my daddy trespassing property at his job."
May 19, 2006 (AP) — Police say a 50-year-old woman wanted in the shooting death of her ex-husband has confessed to killing him.
Lexington County Sheriff James Metts says Ann Baxley Smith has been charged with murder and possessing a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. Smith is scheduled to be in court Sunday for her first hearing on charges of murder.
Deputies say in Ann Smith's confession she said that after she shot her ex she tried to shoot herself, but the gun did not work.
Accused murderer Ann Smith was arrested at a relative's home in Millen, Georgia nearly 24 hours after the shooting. Investigators found a handgun at another relative's home near Millen and think it was used in the killing.
In a Georgia court Friday afternoon, Smith waived her right to an extradition hearing. She came back to Lexington County late Friday afternoon to face murder and weapons charges.
Ann Smith has a criminal background including a charge of domestic violence. That's something Sheriff James Metts finds unusual, "It's highly unusual you have a man. It's usually turned around and it's a woman in the case. You do have domestic violence cases on both sexes but more often on the female than the man."
Sonya Smith said her father constantly called deputies about his ex-wife's irrational behavior. "She constantly harassed us, threatening phone calls, threatening to burn our house down, kill us, left messages on machines, threatening my daddy, trespassing property at his job."
Neighbor David Hildebrand said the victim asked him to help build a gate at his driveway to keep out his ex-wife, "In a nutshell his ex wouldn't leave him alone. She was leaving notes at his home, sending letters in the mail."
Hildebrand thinks the motive for the killing was jealousy. "Woody" Smith had started a new relationship. His girlfriend was inside his home cooking dinner when he was killed.
Ann Smith isn't the only person in trouble. Sheriff Metts says the relatives who tried to hide her in Georgia could also face charges.
June 2, 2006 — Deputies say 53-year-old Mary Linda Knight arranged for Ann Baxley Smith to get out of town, and then she hid the gun Smith used to kill her ex-husband, 62-year old Woody Smith.
July 17, 2006 — A domestic dispute ended with a Shaw airman dead and his wife in jail. She says it was self defense, but authorities say it was murder.
Tech Sgt. Jaime Thomas was a military man for 13 years and also a father and husband. On Sunday, all that ended abruptly. His wife, Linda, is charged with murder after driving to the emergency room and telling officers she had stabbed her husband during a fight.
Sheriff Anthony Dennis says, "She stated that, you know, there was an altercation, that she had been struck several times, and that she picked up the knives pretty much to defend herself."
Officers responded to the couple's Sumter home after a hang up call to 911. Officers kicked in the carport door and saw Jamie Thomas on his side. He'd been stabbed several times in the chest and back.
Officers say Thomas also had cuts to his arms, his shirt soaked with blood, and that they found a number of knives around his body on the floor.
Linda Thomas told investigators the knives were already in the den because she had been cleaning them earlier.
Sheriff Anthony Dennis says she told them that at one point her husband stopped fighting and went to the restroom, "It appeared that she had then followed him and stabbed him several times in the back."
The sheriff is trying to figure out if the killing was pre-meditated.
Two of Linda Thomas' gym buddies can't believe the couple even had problems.
Her friend Frances tells WIS, "When her children are home, she rearranges her schedule around her children so she can be home with her husband and everything."
At Shaw Air Force Base, the victim's coworkers are also confused, trying to cope. Major Bailey is trying to help his squadron, "I met with each member of my squadron this morning, had counselors and a chaplain on the site."
The Air Force also appointed a liaison to help the Thomas family. The couple's two children are staying with relatives. As the sheriff points out, there's more than one victim in this case, "It's almost like, children losing both parents in this case."
July 24, 2006 (AP) — A 35-year-old woman has been charged with murder in connection with the death of her boyfriend Sunday morning.
Beulah R Butler of West Columbia also was charged with possession of a knife during commission of a violent crime in the death of 33-year-old Tarquinius Leonard Russell of Columbia.
West Columbia police Chief Dennis Tyndall says officers responded to a domestic dispute call at Butler's home about two Sunday morning.
Russell was found with a stab wound on his right side, just below his arm. He died later at Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital.
August 13, 2006
— A Columbia woman was arrested Saturday night after trying to stab a man to death.
According to Richland County Deputies, the incident happened at 10:00 PM Saturday night at the Hunter's Way Apartment Complex located at 325 Percival Road, near Ft. Jackson. Officials say Forty-two-year-old Denise Dickens was arrested for stabbing her boyfriend, 37-year-old Lloyd Clark, in the leg.
Clark was transported to Palmetto Health Richland with non-life threatening injuries.
Dickens is currently in jail, facing charges of assault and battery with intent to kill.
August 16, 2006 — A 54-year-old Greenville County man was shot to death early Wednesday morning and his wife is charged with killing him, deputies said.
Gracie Frazier Brown, 53, has been charged with murder in the death of her husband, Frankie Brown, Greenville County Sheriff's Lt. Shea Smith said.
Deputies said they believe an argument between the husband and wife led to the shooting at the home on Dobbins Ridge Drive at about 12:30 AM.
When deputies arrived, they found Frankie Brown had a gunshot wound.
His wife was taken to the Greenville County Law Enforcement Center and is being held without bond.
January 2, 2007 (AP) — A 32-year-old woman has been charged with the stabbing death of a man on New Year's Eve. York County deputies say Iris Gilmore and the victim, 35-year-old Carlos Latta, went to a Clover home around 8 PM Sunday with their 12-year-old daughter.
Investigators say Ms. Gilmore accused Latta of assaulting the girl, then got a steak knife and stabbed him in the chest.
Deputies say Iris Gilmore remains behind bars awaiting a bond hearing on a murder charge.
January 25, 2007 (AP) — A Pickens woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing her boyfriend with a knife.
Thirty-eight-year-old Tammy Cox pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter Wednesday, minutes before closing arguments in her murder trial.
Ms. Cox testified earlier this week that she was trying to protect herself and her children when she threw a knife into Michael Darrell Lusk's chest in 2005. Defense attorney Scott Robinson says Cox wanted to close what he called a "terrible chapter in her life and her daughters' lives."
Prosecutor Lucas Marchant said Ms. Cox killed Lusk on purpose and gave three different stories to investigators.
February 23, 2007 (AP ) — A woman has been arrested after Union County deputies say she poured kerosene on her husband and set him on fire.
Sheriff Howard Wells says 51-year-old Magnolia Sims of Whitmire was charged Friday with assault and battery with intent to kill.
Wells says Ms. Sims told deputies she wanted her ex-husband, Leroy Hill, to die.
The 56-year-old Hill and Sims' 32-year-old brother, Thomas Chick, were both burned in the incident and taken to the Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia. Sheriff Wells says Mr. Chick was injured trying to help Hill.
A third man in the home escaped unharmed.
February 27, 2007 — A Middletown, Connecticut, woman was sentenced in Conway to 20 years in prison Tuesday for stabbing her boyfriend to death in Myrtle Beach.
Prosecutor Brad Richardson says Nearim Grace Blackwell pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the killing of Kenny Selim in June 2005.
Richardson says Ms. Blackwell initially lied to police about her name, but later admitted to stabbing Selim during a fight.
June 11, 2007 (UPI) — Words can hurt as a man found out when he was bitten by his wife after he scrawled profanities on her body as she slept.
Beaufort County sheriff's deputies said the woman was released from jail Friday following the donnybrook that broke out last week at a home in Bluffton, the Hilton Head Island Packet reported
The newspaper said that the unnamed woman woke up Thursday and found that her husband had written coarse words on her arms, legs, and back with a pen while she slept.
The husband told officers that his wife went ballistic over his handiwork, biting him on the stomach and back as they wrestled and then threatening to hit him with a board.
© 2008 WLTX.com
April 25, 2008
— Aiken County deputies have arrested a woman they say was plotting to have her husband killed.
Margaret Stephens, 41, is charged with solicitation to commit a felony-murder.
Deputies say Stephens intended to hire someone to murder her husband. About a week ago, deputies say they learned of the plot from an independent source, then used an undercover agent to uncover the scheme.
Investigators say Stephens met an undercover investigator in the parking lot of the Save-a-Lot at the corner of York Street and Hampton Avenue in Aiken.
"Mrs. Stephens told our investigator she wanted the death to look like an accident and agreed to a price," said Sheriff Michael Hunt said in a written release. "We gave her a chance to change her mind, but she chose not to do it."
Deputies say the woman was upset about what they call a "family situation" and that she was trying to regain control of the family finances.
She faces up to 10 years in prison.
May 2, 2008
— Deputies say Lesley Dorn, 31, shot and killed her husband, 36-year-old Michael Dorn. She has been charged with murder.
The shooting took place just before midnight at an apartment on Riverbend Drive.
Mrs. Dorn called officers to say that her husband had been shot. When they arrived they found her kneeling over her husband's body.
Michael Dorn was pronounced dead at the scene. The motive for the shooting remains under investigation.
May 13, 2008 (AP) — The wife of a man found dead not far from his Horry County condominium has been charged with murder along with another man.
Authorities say 52-year-old Sherry Engel and 41-year-old Timmy Rogers were arrested in Breckinridge County, Kentucky, and are awaiting extradition hearings.
Police say they found Fred Engel's glasses and a pool of blood near his mailbox, then found his body in woods about 100 yards from his home in late April.
The coroner's office has not released how he died.
May 28, 2008 — A Marietta woman accused of killing her common-law husband told authorities her husband had used the Lord's name in vain too many times and that she shot him because "Jesus told me to do it," according to court testimony Wednesday.
The afternoon of April 6
th
52-year-old Gary Parnell was found slumped over in a chair with a shotgun wound to the stomach in the home he and Ms. Redding shared on 172 Parnell Bridge Road in the mountains of Marietta.
Donna Marie Redding, age 35, began quoting "all kinds of Scripture" and told investigators that she killed her husband, Gary Dean Parnell, after the two had argued over whether to play rock or country music and over who would roll a marijuana cigarette, Greenville County Sheriff's investigator Chris Miller testified in court.
In her confession, Ms. Redding told investigators that Parnell "is the devil" and that Jesus had told her to kill him, Miller testified during a preliminary hearing in which the prosecution presents for the first time a general outline of its case against a defendant.
"She was asked why he was the devil," Miller testified. "She said, 'Because he says the Lord's name in vain.'"
Redding's defense attorney, Scott Robinson, asked Miller if anyone saw Redding shoot Parnell and whether any wiring cable that might have been used to threaten her was found at the desk where Parnell was found slumped over in a chair.
Miller testified that Ms. Redding told investigators that Gary Parnell had not made any threatening gestures before she shot him.
On the afternoon of the shooting Parnell's brother and great-nephew were working on unclogging a natural spring outside the home that was the source of water to the household, Miller testified.
The nephew went inside for a short while and saw Parnell working at his desk in a master bedroom welding wire, and both Parnell and Redding seemed fine, Miller testified. Fifteen minutes later, the nephew and brother heard a loud noise and thought Redding, who was known to burn garbage outside, might have thrown an aerosol paint can into a fire, Miller testified.
The two went in to check and Ms. Redding told them she had killed Parnell. When authorities entered the bedroom, they found Parnell with a shotgun wound to his upper abdomen, slumped over in his desk chair and his feet under a desk drawer, Miller testified.
On the bed were a shotgun and pellet gun and two shotgun casings, one spent and the other unused, he testified. Ms. Redding was then arrested and charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Chief Magistrate Diane Cagle ruled that prosecutors have enough probable cause that the charges should be passed along to a grand jury to consider indictment.
June 13, 2008
— A Newberry County woman charged with trying to murder her husband was indicted in Prosperity on charges of administering or attempting to administer poison on Friday.
Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster said Mary Susan Brooks, of Prosperity, was arrested and charged with attempt to commit murder on February 24 th .
Investigators say the 60-year-old Brooks put some type of crushed medicine in her husband's drink.
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