Brad Sigmon South Carolina Death Row
Brad Sigmon was sentenced to death by the State of South Carolina for the murders of David Larke and Gladys Larke. According to court documents Brad Sigmon would enter a residence and beat to death David Larke and Gladys Larke with a baseball bat. Brad Sigmon would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
South Carolina Death Row Inmate List
Brad Sigmon 2021 Information
Admission Date: 07/02/2002
Location: Broad River
Brad Sigmon More News
Sigmon and Rebecca “Becky” Larke were in an intimate relationship for approximately three years. They were living together in her trailer when she informed Sigmon she did not want to see him anymore. Becky’s parents, Gladys and David Larke, lived next door to them in a trailer on the same property. David also informed Sigmon that Becky wanted him to move out and served him with eviction papers, stating Sigmon had to leave within two weeks. Becky subsequently moved in with her parents. Sigmon believed she had begun a new relationship and although he pleaded with her to come back, she refused. Sigmon became increasingly obsessed with Becky, stalking her in an attempt to verify she was seeing another man.
About a week after Becky asked him to leave, Sigmon was drinking and smoking crack cocaine with his friend, Eugene Strube, in Becky’s trailer. At some point in the evening, Sigmon decided he would go to the Larkes’ home the following morning after Becky left to take her children to school and tie up Becky’s parents. When Becky returned home, Sigmon intended to kidnap her and disappear with her, but he did not want her parents to be able to call the authorities. Sigmon and Strube eventually ran out of crack and Strube fell asleep.
In the morning, after they saw Becky leave, Strube and Sigmon exited the trailer. However, Strube changed his mind about helping Sigmon and left. Sigmon grabbed a baseball bat from beneath his trailer and entered the Larkes’ trailer. Upon seeing Sigmon, David told his wife to bring him his gun, and Sigmon hit him in the back of the head several times with the bat. Sigmon then saw Gladys, ran after her into the living room, and hit her several times in the head. He returned to the kitchen where David lay and hit him several more times with the bat because he was still moving. He then went back to Gladys, saw that she was still moving, and hit her several more times.
Sigmon retrieved David’s gun and waited for Becky to return home. When Becky arrived, Sigmon brandished the gun, took her car keys, and forced her in her car. He intended to pick up his own car and drive to North Carolina with Becky. However, she managed to jump out of the car and tried to run away. Sigmon pulled over and chased after her, shooting her several times. When he realized he was out of bullets, he got back in her car and fled. Although Becky was injured, she survived the assault and told the witnesses who came to her aid that Sigmon told her he had either tied up or killed her parents. Police officers were dispatched to the Larkes’ home where the bodies were discovered.
A manhunt ensued and Sigmon was eventually captured in Gatlinburg, Tennessee after he called his mother, who was assisting the police in locating him. He was arrested without incident and taken into custody by the Gatlinburg police department where he confessed to murdering the Larkes and kidnapping and shooting Becky. He admitted that he intended to kill Becky and then kill himself. Officers from Greenville arrived to transfer him back to Greenville, but, at Sigmon’s request, they took his statement before leaving Tennessee. He again confessed to his crimes and stated his plan had been to kill Becky and himself.
Sigmon was indicted for two counts of murder; assault and battery with intent to kill; kidnapping and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime; first degree burglary; and grand larceny. The case proceeded to trial only on the murder and first degree burglary charges. Sigmon conceded guilt and presented no evidence in his defense. The State presented expert testimony that both of the Larkes died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head, describing the severity of their wounds. Both sustained nine lacerations to the head, causing hemorrhaging and filling the sinuses with blood, so that they were breathing in blood as they died. It was estimated that both lived for three to five minutes before dying from their wounds. Additionally, both sustained defensive wounds to their forearms. The jury ultimately found Sigmon guilty.
During the penalty phase, the defense presented testimony regarding Sigmon’s mental state, such as his issues with childhood abandonment and neglect that affected the development of his social mores and overall judgment, as well as evidence of an extensive history of drug use stemming from his “recurrent major depressive disorder” or his “chemical dependency disorders.” Sigmon additionally presented evidence that he was adapting to prison life and that he was not a problematic or difficult prisoner. Sigmon testified he was sorry for the crimes and admitted he probably deserved to die.
The court charged the jury to consider three factors in aggravation: that two or more persons were killed, that the murder was committed during the commission of a burglary, and that the murder was committed with physical torture. It also charged the jury to consider four statutory mitigating circumstances: that the defendant had no prior history of criminal convictions involving the use of violence against another person; the murder was committed while the defendant was under the influence of emotional or mental disturbance; the capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct, or conform his conduct to the law was substantially impaired; and the defendant was provoked by the victim. Although Sigmon requested a charge on the statutory mitigating circumstance of age or mentality, the judge declined to give that charge, noting mental state would be covered by the other mitigating circumstances he charged.
The jury ultimately sentenced Brad Sigmon to death
I don’t know how many people we have on death row in this country, but I will assume that it’s most likely hundreds, and most of them have been waiting years. All of them appeal their sentences which cost us millions of dollars. If we get rid of the death penalty, it will save us money in each state, and most of those on death row will have sentences of life without the possibility of parole. No one will ever get out, and the victims will not have to wait nor go to their court dates, so it would even be accessible to the victim’s families. I also think it would help all of us not to have to take revenge on the people that committed murder.
Most people who commit hideous crimes get convicted, and everything would be more accessible on the court, society, and the victims. Please think it over and see if you think that it might be better.
South Carolina Murderer Will Die by Firing Squad This Week
by Sarah Anderson | 9:06 PM on March 02, 2025
When you think of the term “human garbage,” someone like Brad Sigmon might come to mind.
After a three-year relationship, his girlfriend, Becky Larke, told him she wanted to break up, but Sigmon apparently didn’t take it too well. He refused to leave their home, so she moved in with her parents, David and Gladys. Sigmon begged her to come back, even though he believed she’d already started another relationship, and it’s said that he even began stalking her to see if she was dating another man.
One evening, after spending the night drinking and smoking crack with his pal, Eugene Strube, he made plans to kidnap Becky the next morning. He would go next door to her parents’ house and tie them up while she took her children to school so they couldn’t call the police. When Becky returned, he’d force her into his car and go. Strube promised to help, but he backed out at the last minute. So, Sigmon took matters into his own hands.
Rather than tie the Larkes up, he went to their home with a baseball bat. David asked his wife to get his gun, but before she could, Sigmon began beating him in the head. He then went into the other room and hit Gladys with the bat. He then went back and forth, beating each person until they were dead. When Becky arrived home, he forced her into her car, planning to take her to her North Carolina. She managed to escape, but he shot her several times with her father’s gun before running out of bullets.
Police eventually located him in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and he confessed to all of his crimes, even admitting that he’d planned to kill Becky and then himself. In 2009, he was convicted of two counts of murder and burglary in the first degree and sentenced to death in South Carolina. Barring any last-minute reprieve, he’ll die via firing squad in the Palmetto State on March 7.
Sigmon himself chose the firing squad because he was afraid the electric chair would “burn and cook him alive,” according to his attorney, Gerald King. He also declined a lethal injection because previous men killed via this method in South Carolina likely suffered. Their autopsies found that their lungs were swollen and filled with “blood and fluid.” One man’s execution took 23 minutes.
“Sigmon was forced to make his election. Lacking the basic facts necessary to assess the risks reflected by these lethal injections gone wrong — much less to determine which of South Carolina’s methods is the more inhumane — he chose the firing squad,” his attorneys said as part of a motion filed last week to delay the execution.
State prosecutors responded by saying that because he chose the firing squad, he has “waived any argument about lethal injection.”
The option to die via firing squad is only available in Utah, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, and it’s only been used three times since the death penalty became constitutional in 1976. All three of those incidents were in Utah. The Death Penalty Information Center describes this type of death as follows:
For execution by this method, the prisoner is typically bound to a chair with leather straps across his waist and head, in front of an oval-shaped canvas wall. The chair is surrounded by sandbags to absorb the prisoner’s blood. A black hood is pulled over the prisoner’s head. A doctor locates the prisoner’s heart with a stethoscope and pins a circular white cloth target over it. Standing in an enclosure 20 feet away, five shooters are armed with .30 caliber rifles loaded with single rounds. One of the shooters is given blank rounds. South Carolina’s execution protocol calls for the use of three shooters, each of whom is provided live rounds. Each of the shooters aims his rifle through a slot in the canvas and fires at the prisoner. The prisoner dies as a result of blood loss caused by rupture of the heart or a large blood vessel, or tearing of the lungs. The person shot loses consciousness when shock causes a fall in the supply of blood to the brain. If the shooters miss the heart, by accident or intention, the prisoner bleeds to death slowly.
NBC describes South Carolina’s specific plans for the execution:
At the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, the shooters are volunteers employed by the Department of Corrections. Per officials, the three-person squad will fire rifles, all with live ammunition, from behind a wall about 15 feet from the inmate, who will be seated.
Before the shooting, the inmate is allowed to make a last statement, then a hood is placed over his head and a target pinned over his heart. Bullet-resistant glass separates the chamber from another room where witnesses, including media, will be permitted.
The department provides mental health support to staff members who are taking part in executions, said spokeswoman Chrysti Shain.
D’Michelle DuPre, a forensic consultant in South Carolina and a former medical examiner, said “botched” firing squad executions can be prevented as long as the shooters are properly trained.
Of course, those who oppose the death penalty feel that this is barbaric and that allowing death by firing squad is returning the United States to its past. There are numerous petitions online to stop the execution, and if you do a quick search on X, and you’ll find numerous pleas for this man’s life.
While I’m not a huge death penalty person, I can’t help but wonder where the sympathy is for David and Gladys Larke, whose lives were cut short by an evil man. Where is the outcry for the fact that they never got to enjoy their golden years or see their grandchildren grow up?
NBC also wrote that “Sigmon has spent the past two decades in prison repenting, reading the Bible and praying.”
His lawyer said, “He’s very devout, and that’s been the organizing principle of his life ever since he went to death row. So he’s continued on that course. He is, I would say, fearful about what is looming.”
I’m sure he is. And I’m sure the Larkes were also fearful when a drugged-up maniac entered their home with a baseball bat. But I guess that’s for God to sort out because it sounds like Sigmon’s time on earth is almost over.
From PJ Media