south carolina death row | My Crime Library

Andres Torres South Carolina Death Row

Andres Torres was sentenced to death by the State of South Carolina for a double murder: Ray and Ann Emery. According to court documents Andres Torres broke into the victim’s home and beat to death Ray and Ann Emery with a hammer. Andres Torres would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

South Carolina Death Row Inmate List

Andres Torres 2021 Information

Admission Date: 10/24/2008

Location: Broad River

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A man sentenced to death for a brutal double homicide was back in court Monday claiming that he received ineffective counsel and did not receive a fair trial.
Andres “Tony” Torres, 33, was found guilty in October 2008 of murdering Ray and Ann Emery. The Drayton couple was found beaten in their bedroom on May 11, 2007, after Union County authorities found their van wrecked with their belongings inside. Authorities say the murder weapon was a hammer.
Torres also was convicted of two counts of armed robbery and one count each of attempt to burn, first-degree burglary and first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Ann Emery was sexually assaulted. Gasoline was poured throughout the couple’s home at 12 Montgomery St., and four burners on the stove and oven broiler were set to high.
Six guards escorted Torres into Circuit Court Judge Derham Cole’s courtroom Monday.
One of Torres’ attorneys, Hank Ehlies, told Cole that during the sentencing phase, the judge who presided over the capital case was not clear that the jury was recommending the sentence and that the jury was the sole sentencing authority.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Melody Brown told Cole the original lawyers did not object. The jury was correctly informed, and jurors knew they were deciding Torres’ fate, the attorney said.
Cole denied the motion for a summary judgment and said jurors would have known they were recommending Torres’ sentence.
Ehlies argued that Torres’ original defense lawyers were ineffective for failing to object to the manner in which the law was charged to the jury. He said there was no strategic reasoning for the defense to remain silent on the matter.
Several witnesses also testified Monday.
Former Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office detective Reed Lindsay, who was lead investigator on the case, testified it was his understanding that Torres had an altercation with Ray Emery’s adopted son, Chuck Emery, before the deaths.
According to testimony, Torres threatened to kill Chuck Emery and his family.
Torres’ defense team suggested that another person was involved in the murder and that investigators never looked at other possible suspects. Lindsay, under questioning from Ehlies, said at no point in the investigation did he find anything that pointed to another person’s involvement.
“The person who committed the crime is sitting over there,” Lindsay said, nodding to Torres, who sat shackled in a green prison-issued jumpsuit.
Lindsay said he located Torres at a relative’s home, where he found shoes in a washing machine. He said the tread on the shoes matched bloody shoeprints tracked through the house. Lindsay acknowledged that there were unmatched shoeprints, but said that was to be expected because original responders did not know what they would find at the crime scene.
Lindsay said only a “select few” knew how the couple was killed, but said Torres told him during an interview that he knew the couple had been beaten to death. Lindsay said Torres’ semen also was found at the crime scene, but could not recollect collecting DNA samples from others to compare to forensic evidence.
Ann Emery’s daughter, Crystal Williamson, testified that Torres’ defense attorney did not contact her about the case.
“I never thought Tony Torres did this by himself,” Williamson said.
Lt. Tony Ivey with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office said in a written statement that, “The evidence in this case did not lead investigators to any other individuals having been involved in this case. Had the evidence pointed to the involvement of anyone else they would have been charged along with Mr. Torres.“
The hearing resumes at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

https://www.goupstate.com/article/NC/20140414/News/605133539/SJ

Gary Terry South Carolina Death Row

Gary Terry was sentenced to death by the State of South Carolina for a sexual assault and murder of 47 year old Urai Jackson. According to court documents Gary Terry broke into the home and would sexually assault and murder Urai Jackson before robbing the home. Gary Terry would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

South Carolina Death Row Inmate List

Gary Terry 2021 Information

Admission Date: 09/21/1997

Location: Broad River

Gary Terry More News

The victim in this case, 47 year old Urai Jackson, was found beaten to death in her Lexington County home on May 24, 1994. The window on the carport door to her home had been broken out and the telephone wires had been pulled from the phone box. Victim’s mostly nude body was found in the living room, and semen was found in her vagina. She had several blunt trauma wounds to the head, and a number of defensive wound injuries. The cause of death was blunt trauma with skull fracture and brain injury.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/sc-supreme-court/1084687.html

Bobby Stone South Carolina Death Row

Bobby Stone was sentenced to death by the State of South Carolina for the murder of Sumter County Sheriff Sergeant Charlie Kubala. According to court documents Bobby Stone would shoot and kill Sumter County Sheriff Sergeant Charlie Kubala when he responded to a domestic violence call. Bobby Stone would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

South Carolina Death Row Inmate List

Bobby Stone 2021 Information

Admission Date: 01/29/1997

Location: Broad River

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This case arises out of the shooting death of a Sumter County Sheriff’s Deputy. According to Appellant, he began the day leading up to the fatal encounter by purchasing some alcohol and two firearms. Appellant spent the remainder of the day wandering in the woods near what would become the crime scene, shooting the firearms and becoming increasingly intoxicated. Towards the end of the day, Appellant attempted to visit the home of an acquaintance near the woods.

The acquaintance asked Appellant to leave her property, and the acquaintance later reported the incident to the police. After hearing banging on a door to her home and gunshots outside her house, the acquaintance phoned the police again. The victim was the first officer to respond to the call, and the evidence at trial established that Appellant was on the acquaintance’s porch near a side door when the victim arrived at the scene. The occupants of the home directed the victim towards the porch as the source of the disturbances, and as the victim neared the side porch, he sustained two fatal gunshot wounds. While the State alleged that Appellant shot the victim intentionally, Appellant claimed that he was startled when the victim turned a corner outside the home and yelled “Halt!” or “Hold it!” and that the gun fired accidentally.

A jury convicted Appellant of murder and sentenced him to death

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/sc-supreme-court/1388852.html

Sammie Stokes South Carolina Death Row

Sammie Stokes was sentenced to death by the State of South Carolina for the sexual assault and murder of Connie Snipes. According to court documents Sammie Stokes was paid $2000 by Patti Syphrette to kill her daughter-in-law, 21-year-old Connie Snipes, The victim would be picked up and brought to a wooded area where she was sexually assaulted and then murdered. Sammie Stokes would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

South Carolina Death Row Inmate List

Sammie Stokes 2021 Information

Admission Date: 10/31/1999

Location: Broad River

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U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to consider the appeal of a death row inmate convicted of murdering a woman in Orangeburg County.

Sammie Stokes admitted to a role in the 1998 contract killing of Connie Snipes. But he appealed the results of his 1999 trial, noting the attorney who represented him also prosecuted him seven years earlier.

Keir Weyble, Stokes’ attorney in the Supreme Court case, said his client will have several options to appeal the case at the federal level. He said the case is currently pending in U.S. District Court.

Should the federal district court refuse to hear Stokes’ case, it would go up to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and then the U.S. Supreme Court again, if needed.

“There is a fair amount of standard litigation to go,” Weyble said Monday.

An execution date has not been scheduled for Stokes.

The high court rejected three other death penalty appeals Monday.

Stokes was charged after the nearly nude body of 21-year-old Connie Snipes was found in Branchville in May 1998.

She had been shot twice in the head and an autopsy showed she had been sexually assaulted. Stokes and Snipes had been acquaintances prior to the mutilation and killing of Snipes.

Stokes was promised $2,000 for Snipes’ death.

Stokes was sent to the South Carolina Department of Corrections on Halloween Day 1999 after being found guilty on charges of murder, kidnapping, criminal conspiracy and first-degree criminal sexual misconduct.

In his appeal, the 49-year-old Stokes said defense attorney Thomas Sims also prosecuted him seven years earlier for assaulting his ex-wife and never informed the judge about the earlier case.

During the penalty phase of his trial, Sims asked the jury not to give Stokes the death penalty because he had shown remorse.

Sims never told the judge of his prior involvement in prosecuting Stokes, or that the earlier case relied in large part on the testimony of Stokes’ ex-wife, Audrey Smith, according to Stokes’ current lawyers.

When prosecutors called Smith to testify in the sentencing phase of the murder trial, Sims pulled his punches, Stokes’ lawyers wrote in their Supreme Court filing.

Sims rejected the idea that he did anything wrong. Sims said he and Stokes discussed the matter and that Stokes said he wanted Sims to remain as his lawyer.

Sims told the Associated Press, “I fought for Sammie and I wanted him to live out his life.”

Executions and new death sentences have been declining in recent years in the U.S. Twenty inmates in five states have been executed in 2016, the lowest number since 1991, when 14 people were put to death. No more executions are scheduled this year.

https://thetandd.com/news/local/death-row-appeal-rejected/article_2873fb76-286b-5e38-ba3c-951d2e09e448.html

Stephen Stanko South Carolina Death Row

Stephen Stanko was sentenced to death by the State of South Carolina for the murders of Laura Ling (43) and Henry Lee Turner (74) . According to court documents Stephen Stanko would break into a home and murder Laura Ling and Henry Turner and sexually assault a female teen. Stephen Stanko would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

South Carolina Death Row Inmate List

Stephen Stanko 2021 Information

Admission Date: 08/18.2006

Location: Broad Creek

Stephen Stanko More News

Death row inmate Stephen Stanko is scheduled to be transferred to Georgetown County for a hearing on Jan. 28, Clerk of Court Alma White has confirmed.
White says she has not been told the exact purpose for the hearing but, she said, he is in the appeals portion of the process.
Stephen Stanko, now age 50, is housed at Kirkland Correctional Facility in Columbia.
He has been given two death sentences. One by a jury in Georgetown County and the other by an Horry County jury.
Stanko was arrested in April 2005 for the death of his girlfriend, Laura Ling, the brutal attack and attempted murder of Ling’s daughter – who was 15-years-old at the time – and the shooting death of Henry Turner of Horry County.
Stanko met Laura Ling at the Socastee Library where she was a librarian. They struck up a relationship and Stephen Stanko moved in with Ling and her daughter in their Murrells Inlet home.
Ling and Stanko were also friends with Turner who frequented the library quite often.
On the morning of the crimes, Stephen Stanko stabbed Laura Ling repeatedly inside the home they shared as Ling’s daughter watched in horror.
He then stabbed and raped the teen before fleeing the home in Laura Ling’s vehicle. After withdrawing cash from Ling’s bank account, Stephen Stanko drove to the home of Turner. He shot the 74-year-old man and stole his vehicle
After a nationwide manhunt, based on tips received after the posting of a $10,000 reward for information leading to his capture, Stanko was arrested without incident by the U.S. Marshals Service in Augusta, Georgia on April 12, 2005.
Stephen Stanko stood trial in Georgetown County in 2006. His Horry County trial was in 2009.
During his trials, and in subsequent appeals hearings, Stanko’s lawyers have argued he suffers from a brain defect which caused him to commit the crimes.
GAB News has reached out to Stanko’s attorneys for more information about the upcoming hearing but, as of this posting, no response has been received.
According to court documents filed Jan. 2, Stephen Stanko is now being represented by Lindsey Vann of Columbia and Florence attorney Henry Anderson Jr.

According to those latest court filings, Stephen Stanko says during his trial he was deprived of qualified counsel.
The documents state Stephen Stanko is asking for $10,000 from the state to pay Dr. Joseph Wu, an expert on psychiatric disorders and brain scanning.
Of that amount, $9,000 will be for the doctor’s time (he charges $300 per hour) and $1,000 will be for his travel expenses.
In the filing, it is said the money is needed to make sure Stanko can have adequate resources for his appeal. A date for that appeal has not yet been set.
During Stanko’s trials and Post Conviction Relief (PCR) hearings, his defense presented evidence indicating a brain issue played a major role in the murders of Ling and Turner and the attack on the teen.
During his trial in Horry County in 2009, Dr. Wu testified Stanko has “significant impairment in detecting right from wrong and controlling his impulses.”
However, another doctor, Mark Einhorn said most of his tests on Stephen Stanko done while he was in prison came back fine.
State law, according to the document, allows death row inmates the chance to seek expert witnesses if a court rules such witnesses “are reasonably necessary for the representation of the defendant.”
If a court determines the expert is needed, the court “shall order the payment of fees and expenses.”
Stanko’s lawyers, in the documents, say because a capital case is “an extraordinary proceeding” where the defense is “charged with the awesome responsibility of defending a person’s life”, expert testimony is “particularly essential.”
The documents state Stephen Stanko has an IQ of 143 “and little history of violent behavior.” It notes the crimes were “extremely violent and poorly planned” and were “an aberration” from Stanko’s “known character.”
The attorneys are also asking the court to allow Dr. Wu to examine Stanko’s life history, something – the documents state – has not been done previously.

http://gabnewsonline.com/death-row-inmate-stephen-stanko-seeks-for-his-appeal-hearing-set-f-p2511-170.htm