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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

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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

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/sc-supreme-court/1631312.html

Tyree Roberts South Carolina Death Row

Tyree Roberts was sentenced to death by the State of South Carolina for the murder of two police officers: Cpl. AJ Coursen and LCpl. Dana Tate of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Department. According to court documents Tyree Roberts would shoot and kill the two police officers after they came to a home to investigate a domestic violence issue. Tyree Roberts would hide in the closet and would fire upon Cpl. AJ Coursen and LCpl. Dana Tate of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Department causing their deaths. Tyree Roberts would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

South Carolina Death Row Inmate List

Tyree Roberts 2021 Information

Admission Date: 10/23/2003

Location: Broad River

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In January 2002, Roberts lived in a trailer owned by Brenda Smith on Riley Road in Beaufort County. Also residing at the trailer were Smith’s husband, Isaac, and Roberts’ wife Nzuri. At the time of the crime in this case, a girl named Kimberly Blake, with whom Roberts had an infant daughter, was also staying there. On January 8, 2002, Kimberly Blake asked her friend, Strawberry Washington, to call police to come to the house to assist her in leaving because Roberts had hit her. Beaufort County Sheriff’s Deputies Dyke Coursen and Dana Tate responded. According to Kimberly Blake, when police arrived, Roberts hid in the bedroom closet with his rifle. He gave Kimberly the okay to go out of the bedroom. She left the bedroom and Brenda Smith gave the officers permission to search the bedroom. Officers Coursen and Tate went into the bedroom. Smith and Blake heard gunshots. Blake ran outside and down the road. She was joined shortly after by Roberts coming through the woods with a gun in his hands. Roberts stated, “I just killed those two white bitches and I’m going to say it was self-defense.” Blake left Roberts and returned to the scene to talk to police.

When backup officers responded to the scene, they found officers Coursen and Tate dead; Coursen had suffered six gunshot wounds, Tate had seven. Roberts was subsequently found hiding in the mud under a bridge with a shoulder and hip wound. Roberts was arrested. At the time, he had a black fanny pack carrying ammunition for an M-14 assault rifle, a cell phone and a knife. Police subsequently found a rifle magazine and an SKS assault rifle in the area in which Roberts had fled. The bullets and casings recovered from the victims and the scene of the crime were conclusively matched to the assault rifle.

Roberts was charged with capital murder. At the guilt or innocence phase of trial, he chose to represent himself. However, two attorneys remained as stand-by counsel to assist him at trial. While the jury was deliberating, Roberts indicated to the trial court that if the jury returned a guilty verdict, he did not intend to participate at sentencing. He also indicated he did not want his stand-by attorneys to present a defense. Roberts indicated that if the trial court required him to be present at the sentencing hearing, he would be unruly and would have to be restrained.

The jury convicted Roberts of two counts of murder

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/sc-supreme-court/1115565.html

Freddie Owens South Carolina Death Row

Freddie Owens was sentenced to death by the State of South Carolina for the murder of Irene Graves during an armed robbery. According to court documents Freddie Owens would enter a Speedway convenience store where he would shoot and kill Irene Graves during an armed robbery. Freddie Owens would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

South Carolina Death Row Inmate List

Freddie Owens 2021 Information

Admission Date: 02/13/ 2003

Location: Broad River

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The charges against appellant stem from the 4:00 a.m. November 1, 1997, armed robbery of a Speedway convenience store and fatal shooting of the store’s clerk, Irene Graves. Appellant was jointly tried with co-defendant Stephen Andra Golden. During jury qualification, Golden pled guilty.

During trial, the State introduced the Speedway security video which recorded the robbery and shooting. The video reveals two individuals entered the store. One individual shot Graves.

Golden admitted he was one of the Speedway robbers and claimed appellant was his accomplice. He testified appellant shot Graves in the head after she stated she could not open the safe. No forensic evidence connected appellant to the crime scene.

Nakeo Vance testified he, Golden, appellant, and Lester Young planned to rob the Speedway and, simultaneously, a nearby Waffle House. Golden and appellant robbed the Speedway. Vance and Young went to the Waffle House but did not carry out the robbery. After the Speedway shooting and robbery, Vance testified appellant admitted he shot the store clerk.

Appellant’s girlfriend testified appellant told her he had robbed a store and shot the clerk.

Detective Wood and Investigator Willis testified appellant initially gave a written statement denying involvement in the Speedway robbery and shooting. According to both witnesses, appellant later admitted he shot Graves.

Appellant maintained he was at home in bed at the time of the Speedway robbery and shooting.¹ He suggested the Sheriff’s Department’s investigation into the identity of Golden’s accomplice was inadequate. For instance, he asserted the Sheriff’s Department initially interviewed another individual who tested positive for gun powder residue, but failed to pursue this individual as a suspect. Alternatively, he suggested Vance was the accomplice. Appellant intimated witnesses who testified against him had various reasons to inculpate him in the crime. He also suggested witnesses falsely testified he made statements admitting he robbed the Speedway and shot the store clerk. Additionally, he claimed the Sheriff’s Department intimidated his mother into giving a written statement in which she asserted appellant admitted shooting the clerk. Appellant’s mother denied giving the statement.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/sc-supreme-court/1401150.html

Clinton Northcutt South Carolina Death Row

Clinton Northcutt was sentenced to death by the State of South Carolina for the murder of his infant daughter. According to court documents Clinton Northcutt would beat to death four month old Breanna Nichole Northcutt. Clinton Northcutt would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

South Carolina Death Row Inmate List

Clinton Northcutt 2021 Information

Admission Date: 11/14/2003

Location: Broad River

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As a boy, Clinton Robert Northcutt was beaten so much by his alcoholic father that he once showed up at day care with 30 to 40 bruises, a defense expert testified Tuesday.

In another attack when he was about 5, his father kicked him repeatedly, breaking his leg, said Arlene Andrews, a USC social work professor.

When he was about 11, his father forced him on more than one occasion to have sex with one of the elder Northcutt’s girlfriends, she testified.

The boy moved around a lot in Lexington County and often was left home alone to fend for himself, Andrews said. His mother, who also was physically abused by the elder Northcutt, disappeared from his life at an early age, she said.

The years of abuse and neglect the boy suffered were documented in state Department of Social Services records, Andrews told Circuit Judge James Williams.

“It’s a hard story to tell,” Andrews testified. “It’s extremely chaotic.”

Under state law, Williams could decide Northcutt’s troubled childhood is enough to keep him off Death Row for killing his 4-month-old daughter, Breanna, at their Red Bank-area home on Jan. 7, 2001.

The then-20-year-old Northcutt confessed to slapping, punching, choking, squeezing, shaking and biting the 12-pound infant before breaking her back on a crib rail. He told investigators he snapped in a fit of rage because his daughter wouldn’t stop crying.

Northcutt’s lawyers — David Bruck and Robert Lominack — opened their defense Tuesday with Andrews’ testimony. She also testified in Northcutt’s 2003 jury trial.

The Lexington County jury convicted Northcutt of murder and sentenced him to death in a nine-day trial. But the state Supreme Court in 2007 reversed his sentence, ruling that Solicitor Donnie Myers’ closing argument during the penalty phase was “overly zealous,” even though Northcutt asked jurors to sentence him to death.

The resentencing hearing, which started Monday, is different from the 2003 trial because Williams, not a jury, will decide whether Northcutt will receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

Testimony is expected to end today, though it is not known whether Williams will issue his ruling immediately.

Prosecutors wrapped up testimony Tuesday in their case by recalling Angie Spires Northcutt — Northcutt’s ex-wife and Breanna’s mother — to the stand to describe the effect of her daughter’s death on her life.

“I didn’t realize I had to cram her whole life into four months,” she tearfully testified. “I mean, I’m a new mom. That’s all I wanted.”

She said she learned around Christmas 2000 — several weeks before Breanna’s death — that she was pregnant with their second daughter, though she added that after her then-husband’s arrest, he demanded that she take a paternity test.

Much of Tuesday’s testimony focused on her ex-husband’s younger years. Andrews testified that she interviewed Northcutt, relatives and others, plus reviewed official records, in making a “social assessment” of him.

“All this stuff in the back (years) is what caused him to murder his baby?” Myers asked her under cross-examination.

“I’m saying he was carrying a lot of turmoil inside him,” Andrews replied.

She testified Northcutt’s father was married at least three times and had other women living with him in between. The boy was shuttled between his grandmother and father, usually after state social workers were called in to investigate reports of abuse or neglect, she said.

Northcutt was expelled in the eighth grade for breaking windows at a school and later spent about 1½ years in a state juvenile prison after he was arrested for trying to bring a loaded pistol to Airport High School, she testified. He never completed high school but obtained his G.E.D. while in juvenile prison, she said.

His life began to turn around in his later teen years after he started dating his future wife, Angie, whom he married in 1999, Andrews said. “It gave him a sense of order and stability he never really had in his life before.”

But Northcutt later didn’t adapt well to the stress of being a young father and working an out-of-town construction job, she testified. In her interview with him, he said he took methamphetamines while working, which made him sleepy and irritable when he was home on weekends with Breanna, she said.

“In general, he felt like he couldn’t do anything right,” she testified.

Clinton Robert Northcutt was sentenced to death Wednesday for killing his 4-month-old daughter, Breanna, at their Red Bank-area home on Jan. 7, 2001.

Richard Moore South Carolina Death Row

Richard Moore was sentenced to death by the State of South Carolina for the murder of Jamie Mahoney during a robbery, According to court documents Richard Moore would enter Nikki’s, a convenience store on Highway 221 in Spartanburg and in the process of an armed robbery shoot and kill Jamie Mahoney. Richard Moore would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

South Carolina Death Row Inmate List

Richard Moore 2021 Information

Admission Date: 10/22/2001

Location: Broad River

Richard Moore More News

The charges in this case stem from the September 16, 1999, armed robbery of Nikki’s, a convenience store on Highway 221 in Spartanburg. According to Terry Hadden, an eyewitness, Moore walked into Nikki’s at approximately 3:00a.m. and walked toward the cooler. Hadden was playing a video poker machine, which he did routinely after working his second shift job. Hadden heard Jamie Mahoney, the store clerk, yell, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Hadden turned from the poker machine to see Moore holding both of Mahoney’s hands with one of his hands. Moore turned towards Hadden, pointed a gun at him, and told him not to move. Moore shot at Hadden, and Hadden fell to the floor and pretended to be dead. After several more shots were fired, Hadden heard the doorbell to the store ring. He heard Moore’s pickup truck and saw him drive off on Highway 221. Hadden got up and saw Mahoney lying face down, with a gun about two inches from his hand; he then called 911. Mahoney died within minutes from a gunshot wound through his heart. A money bag with $1408.00 was stolen from the store.

Shortly after the incident, Deputy Bobby Rollins patrolled the vicinity looking for the perpetrator of the crime. Approximately one and one-half miles from the convenience store, Deputy Rollins took a right onto Hillside drive, where he heard a loud bang, the sound of Moore’s truck backing into a telephone pole. He turned his lights and saw Moore sitting in the back of a pickup truck bleeding profusely from his left arm. As Deputy Rollins ordered him to the ground, Moore advised him, “I did it. I did it. I give up. I give up.” A blood covered money bag was recovered from the front seat of Moore’s pick-up truck. The murder weapon, a .45 caliber automatic pistol, was found on a nearby highway shortly before daylight.

Moore was tried for the crimes in October 2001. The jury convicted him of all counts. In a separate sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended a sentence of death.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/sc-supreme-court/1138794.html