COLUMBIA, S.C. (WBTW) — More than 35 men are set to be executed in South Carolina — most of who have been on death row for decades.
They include a school shooter, murderers who killed during armed robberies and killers who killed their romantic partners — two of which were let out on bond right before the crimes.
Under state law, the decision to impose a death penalty is decided by a jury. South Carolina has executed more than 650 people, including infamous serial killer Donald Henry “Pee Wee” Gaskins, Jr., who was executed via electric chair in 1991.
Legislation approved by the General Assembly last year expanded the methods of execution from exclusively lethal injection to also include the electric chair and firing squad. The state has not executed an inmate since 2011 due to its inability to obtain the deadly drugs.
Death row inmates are housed at the Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia. Executions are conducted at Broad River Correctional Institution, also in Columbia.
Under current state law, a person who is convicted of, or pleads guilty to murder, either faces the death penalty or at least 30 years in prison. Pregnant inmates cannot be executed while they are pregnant, and for at least nine months afterward.
The state must argue that there is an “aggravating” circumstance in order to pursue the death penalty.
According to state law, those circumstances are:
- A murder was committed in addition to any degree of criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, human trafficking, burglary, robbery while armed with a deadly weapon, larceny with the use of a deadly weapon, drug trafficking, physical torture and/or first-degree arson
- Murder committed via poison
- A murder victim was dismembered
- The defendant has already been convicted of another murder
- The defendant murdered someone and “knowingly created a great risk of death” to at least one other person in a public place
- The murder was committed for the purpose of receiving money or an object of monetary value
- The murder victim was a current/former judicial officer, solicitor or other office of a court who was killed during or because of their exercise of official duty
- The defendant caused, or directed another person, to commit murder “as an agent or employee of another person”
- The murder victim was a current or former law enforcement officer or a firefighter, and the killing happened during or because of the victim’s official duties
- The murder of a public official’s family member with the intent to impede or retaliate against the official
- At least two people were murdered “by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct”
- The murder victim was a child 11 years old or younger
- A witness or potential witness to a crime was murdered
- An accused murderer has been declared a sexually violent predator
Here are the 35 prisoners on death row in South Carolina, as of the time of publication. Prisoners are listed in alphabetical order:
Bayan Aleksey
County: Orangeburg
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Sept. 1, 1998
Aleksey is accused of shooting and killing Sgt. Franklin Lingard on New Year’s Eve in 1997 after Lingard stopped Aleksey’s Ford Mustang.
Aleksey shot Lingard through the driver’s side of the car. There was a woman and two children in the vehicle at the time.
The shooting led to a chase, during which Aleksey held a gun to his head and threatened to kill himself if law enforcement approached him. He then drove off again and was stopped after an officer deliberately crashed into the Mustang.
Aleksey has given two conflicting statements to law enforcement. In the first, he claims the woman was driving the car and shot Lingard, before swapping seats with Aleksey. In the second, he confessed to the shooting.
Aleksey is now 53 years old
Quincy Jovan Allen
County: Richland
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: March 21, 2005
Allen was convicted of shooting a homeless man multiple times on July 7, 2002. Allen told police that he used the man as a “practice victim” because he didn’t know how to shoot a gun. The man survived.
A few days later, Allen met a prostitute, took her to a cul-de-sac and shot her three times after she pleaded for her life. He then doused her body is gasoline and set her on fire.
A few months later, he got into an argument with two women and a man. He shot at the man’s car, missed him and the bullet hit and killed a different man. He then set fire to two homes the same night.
The next day, Allen set another car on fire, pointed a shotgun at a strip club patron and then shot and killed two men at a convenience store. He reportedly said that he was told in prison that he could get a job as a hit man, and would have killed more people if he had a handgun.
Allen is now 42 years old. While in prison, he has been punished for threatening to harm an employee, assault and has been punished multiple times for possessing or attempting to possess a cell phone, according to inmate records.
Steven Vernon Bixby
County: Abbeville
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Feb. 21, 2007
The Bixby family started threatening South Carolina Department of Transportation officials in 2003 after the department planned to take advantage of a right of way on the family’s property during the construction of SC-72.
The Bixby said they would “fight to the death” if SCDOT attempted to do construction work on the site, and that they’d kill law enforcement officials who “trespassed” on the property.
Bixby killed Deputy Danny Wilson and Constable Donnie Ouzts days later. Dozens of law enforcement were sent to the property, and Bixby was arrested after a gunfight.
Bixby is 54 years old. He has had several disciplinary sanctions in prison, including for threatening to hurt an employee and for hitting an employee, according to prison records.
Ricky Lee Blackwell, Sr.
County: Spartanburg
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: March 17, 2014
Blackwell was convicted of shooting and killing an 8-year-old girl in July 2008, after his wife left him. The girl, Brooke Center, was the daughter of his wife’s new boyfriend.
Blackwell flagged his wife down after he went to her parents’ house. She got out of the car to secure a dog and turned around to see that Blackwell had grabbed Brooke and had a gun pointed at the child.
Court documents state that Blackwell told his wife that she had “pushed this to far” and “did this.” After shooting the girl multiple times, he ran into the woods and shot himself in the stomach. He was found guilty of kidnapping and murder.
Blackwell is 63 years old.
Marion Bowman, Jr.
County: Dorchester
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: May 23, 2002
Bowman shot and killed Kandee Martin before stuffing her body into the trunk of her car and setting it on fire. Witnesses told authorities that Martin owed Bowman money and had heard him threaten to kill her. Later, he told witnesses that he’d murdered her, stating “I killed Kandee, heh heh heh.”
Although it wasn’t mentioned in front of the jury due to circumstances being unclear, records indicate that he may have had sex with her corpse after shooting and dragging her into the woods, according to court records. There are also some indications that he gave her drugs in exchange for sex on the afternoon of the murder.
Bowman is 41 years old.
Stephen Cory Bryant
County: Sumter
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Oct. 31, 2005
Bryant murdered three people during an eight-day crime spree in October 2004. He’d go to isolated, rural homes in the middle of the day claiming that he was looking for someone or was having car trouble. He later returned to a home, cut its phone wires and stole a gun. The same day, he shot a man in the back while the man was fishing along the Wateree River.
He then killed an acquaintance, left the body on a rural road and stole electronics from the man’s trailer before setting it on fire. Two days later, he went to another home, shot a man nine times and stole more items. He answered calls made to the man’s phone and told the man’s wife and daughter that he was the “prowler.”
He wrote the word “catch” on a wall in blood. He wrote “victim number four in two weeks, catch me if you can,” on another wall.
A few days later, he shot and killed another man who he met at a convenience store.
While awaiting trial, he threatened one correctional officer and then attacked and seriously injured another.
Bryant is 41 years old. While incarcerated, he has been disciplined for fighting.
James N. Bryant, III
County: Horry
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Oct. 9, 2004
Bryant was stopped by police in Horry County when he wrestled Cpl. Dennis Lyden to the ground, beat him unconscious with the Lyden’s flashlight and then shot the officer in the head with Lyden’s own pistol. He was arrested the next day after a manhunt.
Bryant is 41 years old.
Luzenski Allen Cottrell
County: Marion
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: April 7, 2005
Myrtle Beach Officer Joe McGarry was getting coffee with another officer in December 2002 when he spotted Cottrell. Cottrell was a suspect in the murder of Rick Hartman, whose body was found a month earlier. McGarry and the officer approached Cottrell outside, and asked him about a case he was previously involved in.
While waiting to see if Cottrell had active warrants on him, McGarry pat down Cottrell, who then ran away. The two got into a scuffle and Cottrell shot McGarry, who fell backwards and hit his head on the pavement.
Cottrell was arrested after a gunfight with police and a car chase.
Cottrell is 44 years old
Donnie Council
County: Aiken
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Oct. 23, 1996
Council had hogtied and duct tapped Elizabeth Gatti, a 72-year-old widow, whose body was found underneath a bedspread in her basement. In addition to suffocating her, Council was convicted of sexually assaulting her. A pathologist told a jury at trial that he had also forced her to drink cleaning fluids.
She survived for two to four hours after being sexually assaulted. Her body was found in the ransacked house after a neighbor noticed she hadn’t gotten her newspaper that morning.
Council is 56 years old
William Dickerson
County: Charleston
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: May 7, 2009
William Dickerson and other men are accused of torturing Gerard Roper for 36 hours in March 2006. Roper, who owed Dickerson money, begged for his life.
Dickerson initially shot at Roper, missed and then hit him in the head with his gun and dragged him into a car.
During the torture, Roper’s teeth were knocked out when he was hit with a gun. While multiple men tortured Roper, prosecutors said that Dickerson was the main aggressor. He was accused of choking Roper, tying him up, placing him in a closet, sodomizing him with a gun and broomstick, burning his scrotum, hitting him with a heavy vase and a mirror, and cutting him.
Roper received more than 200 individual, external wounds and had several internal injuries. Dickerson is accused of making multiple calls during the torture, telling people what was happening.
Dickerson was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct.
Dickerson is 45 years old. While in prison, he has been disciplined for hitting and threatening employees.
Ron O’Neal Finklea
County: Lexington
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Sept. 7, 2007
Finklea shot and killed Walter Sykes, a security guard at Selectron, in August 2003. Once inside the facility, Finklea let another man — who was carrying a gasoline can — into the building to douse an ATM with gasoline.
Soon after, Sykes, who was on fire and bleeding from his neck, ran from the building. He died on the front lawn from his burns and gunshot wounds to his face and neck. Video from the sites shows that Finklea shot Sykes and set him on fire.
After being arrested, Finklea tried to kill himself in his cell, which led to him sustaining a brain injury. He claims that he has amnesia and cannot remember what happened the day of the murder. A physician who examined him found that there was evidence of brain damage, and that Finklea likely wasn’t faking memory loss.
Finklea is 48 years old.
Mar-Reece Hughes
County: York
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Sept. 25, 1995
Hughes stole a car from two college students at gunpoint in September 1992 in Charlotte. Hughes, along with Eric Forney, drove the car to Rock Hill, where they were stopped by law enforcement for driving without their headlights on.
Forney and Hughes shot and killed Deputy Sheriff Brent McCants. Forney, who has claimed that Hughes was the shooter, has been sentenced to life in prison after prosecutors pursued the death penalty.
While in prison awaiting trial, Hughes killed his sleeping cellmate by stabbing him in the throat with a shank. He was stabbing another inmate when he was stopped by prison guards.
Hughes is 56 years old. While incarcerated, he has been disciplined for two instances of threatening to harm an employee. He also attempted to escape prison in July 1999.
Jerry Buck Inman
County: Pickens
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: June 9, 2006
Inman murdered Tiffany Marie Souers, a Clemson University student, in May 2006. Souers’ partially-clothed body was found by her roommate. She had been sexually assaulted and died after Inman strangled her with a bathing suit top.
Inman then tried to use her ATM card at two different machines. He was caught after his evidence was run through the National DNA Database, which already contained his information due to previous sexual offenses.
Inman is 51 years old.
Jerome Jenkins, Jr.
County: Horry
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: May 17, 2019
Jenkins shot and killed two clerks during separate robberies at Sunhouse stores in 2015.
While awaiting trial, he displayed threatening behavior at maximum security facilities, including throwing feces at employees, according to information presented at his trial.
Jenkins is 28 years old.
Timothy Ray Jones
County: Lexington
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Sept. 12, 2014
Jones killed his five children — 8-year-old Merah, 7-year-old Elias, 6-year-old Nahtahn, 2-year-old Gabriel and 1-year-old Abigail Elaine — in 2014. Their bodies were found in trash bags in a field in Alabama days later.
He strangled at least four of the children, who he has said he killed after Nahtahn accidentally died after doing exercises as punishment. He had custody of the children at the time and had previously been reported to state authorities for child abuse.
He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming that he had schizophrenia.
Jones is 40 years old.
Marion A. Lindsey
County: Spartanburg
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: May 25, 2004
Lindsey shot and killed his wife, Ruby Nell Lindsey, who was in a car with a friend and the women’s two children.
The car was in the parking lot of a police department, where the Ruby’s friend had driven, after being approached by Lindsey. Lindsey pointed his gun at an officer, who fired four rounds and wounded Lindsey.
Lindsey had hit Ruby multiple times in front of witnesses while they were married. In one instance, he beat her in a restaurant parking lot and left before an officer could arrest him. He had previously threatened to kill her.
The night before the murder, he was arrested on a warrant for criminal domestic violence and was released on a $1,000 bond.
Lindsey is 48 years old.
Mikal D. Mahdi
County: Calhoun
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: July 23, 2004
Mahdi killed a North Carolina gas station employee in 2004 by shooting them twice in the face at point-blank range. The murder weapon had been stolen, and he was driving a stolen vehicle with stolen license plates.
He carjacked a person two days later in Columbia at gunpoint, and attempted to buy gas with a stolen credit cards.
While hiding at a farm owned by Cpt. James Myers, Mahdi killed him by shooting him nine times with a semi-automatic rifle. Mahdi then poured fuel over the body and lit it on fire. He also stole Myers’ truck and guns.
He was arrested in Florida three days later after a vehicle chase.
Mahdi is 39 years old. While in prison, he has been disciplined for possession of a weapon, possession of escape tools/paraphernalia and for attacking an employee. He tried escaped in March 2005, and attempted to escape in December 2006 and October 2014.
Richard Bernard Moore
County: Spartanburg
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Oct. 22, 2001
Moore was convicted of shooting and killing James Mahoney, a store clerk at Nikki’s Speedy Mart in Spartanburg, during an armed robbery in Sept. 1999. A witness at the trial testified that they saw Moore enter the store, then shot at them. The witness dropped to the floor and played dead. Mahoney was then shot in the chest.
Moore left the store and was later found with $1,408 from the store. The prosecution said during the trial that he had taken the money because he wanted to buy crack cocaine.
There was no evidence that Moore entered the store with a gun. In an application for post-conviction relief, Moore claimed that he received ineffective assistance of council at his trial, and that Mahoney was the aggressor, and that he’d taken the gun during a struggle with the clerk and fired “blindly.” Moore said that he was short on change that night, asked if he could use money from the change cup on the counter, and that Mahoney refused and pulled a gun when Moore refused to leave the business.
Moore is 57 years old. He was scheduled to be executed on April 29. However, his execution by firing squad has been delayed pending a court decision.
Clinton Robert Northcutt
County: Lexington
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Nov. 14, 2003
Northcutt’s wife found her baby daughter, Breanna, dead in her crib after coming home to find Northcutt’s wedding ring on a table and a message on their answering machine confessing that the baby was dead. HIs wife had previously threatened to leave him, and was pregnant with their second child at the time.
An autopsy showed that there was severe trauma to Breanna’s body, including evidence of shaken baby syndrome. A pathologist estimated that the injuries were done over a seven to 15-minute timeframe, or possibly in two to three minutes.
Prosecutors said that Northcutt shook, squeezed, clapped, punched, bit and strangled his daughter to get her to stop crying.
Northcutt is 41 years old.
Freddie Eugene Owens
County: Greenville
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Feb. 18, 2003
Owens shot and killed Irene Graves, a store clerk, in November 1997 at a Speedway. Stephen Andra Golden, the co-defendant, pleaded guilty and said that Owens shot Graves in the head after she couldn’t open the safe.
His girlfriend testified that Owens told her he’d robbed a store and shot a clerk, but Owens has claimed that he was in bed at the time of the crime. Forensic evidence has connected him to the crime scene. Golden, along with other men, planned to rob the Speedway and a Waffle House, but two others said they didn’t do the second robbery, according to court documents.
Owens has been convicted of murder, armed robbery, use of a firearm in the commission of a violent crime and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
Owens is 44 years old. While in prison, he has threatened to harm employees at least 20 times, possessed weapons, attacked employees and thrown substances, according to prison records.
Tyree Alphonso Roberts
County: Beaufort
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Oct. 23, 2003
Roberts killed Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputies Dyke Coursen and Dana Tate when they responded to a trailer after Roberts’ romantic partner tried to leave him. When authorities arrived, Roberts hid in the bedroom closet with a rifle, and shot the deputies when they were searching the bedroom.
While running away, Roberts told a woman — who he also had a daughter with –who was staying at the trailer “I just killed those two white b—— and I’m going to say it was self-defense.”
Coursen had been shot six times. Tate had been shot seven times.
Roberts was found hiding in mud underneath a bridge with a shoulder and hip wound.
He is 59 years old. He has been disciplined twice in prison for threatening employees.
James D. Robertson
County: York
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: March 27, 1999
Robertson was sentenced to death after killing his parents, Earl and Terry Robertson, in March 1997. He was also convicted of armed robbery and financial transaction card fraud.
He stabbed his mother to death, blinded his father with bathroom cleaner, and then crushed his skull with a hammer and a baseball bat.
He is 48 years old.
Brad Keith Sigmon
County: Greenville
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: July 22, 2002
Sigmon killed David and Gladys Larke by hitting them in the head with a baseball bat. He had previously stalked their daughter, Becky Larke, his ex, after he thought she was dating another man.
He intended to go to the Larkes’ home and tie David and Gladys up while their daughter was gone, and then kidnap her. David attempted to get his gun when Sigmon entered their home, and Sigmon beat the two to death.
When Becky arrived, he brandished a gun, took her car keys and then forced her into a car. She was able to jump out and run away. Sigmon chased her and shot until he ran out of bullets. Becky, who was injured, survived.
He was captured in Tennessee after a manhunt. After his arrest, he said he planned to kill Becky and then himself.
He was found guilty of two counts of murder and one count of first-degree burglary.
Sigmon is 64 years old. He is scheduled to be executed on May 13.
Mitchell Carlton Sims
County: Berkeley
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: June 28, 1989
Sims killed John Harrigan, a Domino’s Pizza employee, while Harrigan was delivering Sims and his girlfriend a pizza a at motel room in 1985. He also tried to killed two other Domino’s employees after showing up to the store wearing Harrigan’s shirt.
Although Sims had managed a Domino’s in West Columbia, and then was a delivery driver in Hanahan, he committed the murder in California.
Sims had resigned from the business after part of his bonus was withheld. He had told his girlfriend that he planned to use explosives to kill his former boss.
After killing Harrigan, he drove to a Domino’s Pizza and tied two employees up in the cooler. They were required them to stand on their tiptoes to avoid being strangled. He also robbed the store.
Harrigan’s body was found in a bathtub with his wrists and ankles bound, his head covered with a pillow case that had been tied around his neck, and a washcloth in his mouth, which was held in place by sock that had been tied around his head. A pathologist determined that Harrigan might have drowned.
Sims is 62 years old. He is currently held outside of the death row facility.
Fred Singleton
County: Newberry
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Sept. 19, 1983
Family member found 73-year-old Elizabeth Sease Lominick’s body in her bedroom in September 1982. She had been strangled with a bedsheet and sexually assaulted.
Singleton was arrested in Georgetown County with her jewelry and car.
Singleton was convicted of murder, burglary, larceny, grand larceny of a motor vehicle and first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Singleton is 77 years old.
Stephen Christophe Stanko
County: Georgetown
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Oct. 18, 2006
Stanko murdered his girlfriend, Laura Ling, and Henry Turner in 2005. He also raped and assaulted Ling’s teenage daughter.
After killing Ling, he killed 74-year-old Turner. Stanko was later arrested in Georgia.
He had previously been convicted of kidnapping and assault.
Stanko is 54 years old.
Norman Starnes
County: Lexington
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: April 25, 1997
Starnes murdered Bill Welborn and Jared Champlain after they went to eat at his restaurant in January 1996. When they didn’t return home, their girlfriends reported them missing, and police received leads in May 1996 that led authorities to the bodies.
The night of the murder, Starnes took money out of the cash register three times. He told his girlfriend that Welborn had pistol whipped him in the bathroom, and Starnes said he’d kill them. He later told his girlfriend that he killed the men during a drug deal.
After shooting and killing the two, Starnes urinated on them, placed their bodies in his truck and drove into the woods. When the bodies began to smell, he dug up the graves and covered the bodies with lime. His girlfriend eventually tipped off law enforcement and told them where the bodies were buried.
While the men were missing, Starnes had appeared on tv asking for help finding the two.
Starnes is 56 years old.
Sammie Louis Stokes
County: Orangeburg
Date to Department of Corrections: Oct. 31, 1999
Stokes was hired to kill 21-year-old Connie Snipes after her mother-in-law offered him $2,000 to commit the crime in 1998.
He forced Snipes at gunpoint to have sex with another man, Norris Martin, and then have sex with him. While doing so, he stabbed her in the chest, and then he and Martin each shot her once in the head. Stokes then mutilated her body.
Her body was found in the woods a few days later, with Martin’s wallet nearby. The next day, police went to a home to find that Stokes and the woman who hired him to kill Snipes — Patti Syphrette — had suffocated Doug Ferguson by wrapping duct tape around his head.
Stokes is 55 years old.
Bobby Wayne Stone
County: Sumter
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Jan. 29, 1997
Stone was convicted of shooting and killing Sgt. Charles Kubala, after Kubala responded to multiple calls at a property where Stone was wandering with a gun. Kubala was shot in the ear and neck.
Authorities found Stone in the woods with the murder weapon. He claimed that the shooting was an accident.
Stone is 56 years old.
Gary Dubose Terry
County: Lexington
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Sept. 19, 1997
Terry beat 47-year-old Urai Jackson to death in her home in 1994. When authorities arrived, they found that a window had been broken out and that telephone wires were pulled from the phone box. She had been sexually assaulted and had several wounds to her head.
Terry claimed that he had consensual sex with Jackson and that she got angry when he tried to leave. He told authorities that he hit her several times and then left, but later told authorities that he involuntarily gave his statement.
He is 54 years old.
Andres Antonio Torres
County: Spartanburg
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Oct. 24, 2008
Torres was convicted of killing his neighbors, Ray and Mary Ann Emery, in 2007. The Emerys were bludgeoned to death with a hammer. He also attempted to burn down their home.
He was convicted of two counts of murder, two counts of armed robbery, first-degree burglary, first-degree criminal sexual conduct and third-degree arson.
His defense argued that he had a history of mental illness, including intermittent explosive disorder.
He is 41 years old. While in prison, he has been disciplined three times for threatening employees.
James William Wilson
County: Greenwood
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: May 11, 1989
At 19, Wilson shot and killed two elementary school students, wounded seven other children and injured two employees, during a school shooting at Oakland Elementary School in 1988.
He picked his victims at random, firing into the cafeteria until his gun was out of bullets. He then reloaded his gun in a restroom, went into a classroom and continued shooting. A teacher detained him until police arrived.
He pleaded guilty, but mentally ill.
Wilson is 53 years old. While in prison, he has been disciplined for threatening employees and for throwing/exposing substances on multiple occasions.
Louis Michael Winkler
County: Horry
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Feb. 8, 2008
Winkler kidnapped and sexually assaulted his wife, Rebekah Grainger Winkler in October 2005, and murdered her five months later.
When she was found, Rebekah’s hair was ripped out, she had black eyes, a broken nose, bruising around her neck and a bite mark to her face. She was taken to a hospital.
Winkler’s bond was initially denied, and was then set to $150,000 on a second bond hearing. He was also required to wear an ankle monitor.
He then kicked in her door, assaulted her son and shot her in the face at point-blank range. He was arrested after hiding in the woods for two weeks. His wallet included a newspaper clipping about the murder.
Winkler is 62 years old.
John Richard Wood
County: Greenville
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Feb. 15, 2002
Wood killed Trooper Eric Nicholson in 2000 after Nicholson conducted a traffic stop on Wood, who was on a moped. Nicholson was shot five times.
Witnesses to the shooting followed Wood as he drove away. He entered a parking lot, got into a Jeep, and then led police on a chase. He shoot at police during the chase, and hit one in the face with a bullet fragment.
He was taken into custody after hijacking a truck.
Wood is 55 years old. While in prison, he has been disciplined for hitting an employee, and has multiple counts of threatening employees.
Anthony Woods
County: Clarendon
Date to South Carolina Department of Corrections: Dec. 8, 2006
Joanne Dubose, a 53-year-old teacher, was found dead in June 2003. A sheet was tied around her neck, her arm was tied down and her body was decomposing.
Woods was arrested the next day in connection to the burglary at a different house. DNA testing and an analysis of his shoeprint connected him to the murder.
Authorities determined that Dubose was strangled and was murdered two days before her body was found. She had potentially been sexually assaulted, but the state of her body made it difficult to detect signs of trauma.
His first trial ended with a hung jury and a mistrial. He was retried in 2006 and found guilty.
Woods is 57 years old.
