Todd Kohlhepp Pleads Guilty to Seven South Carolina Murders and Gets Seven Life Terms
The real estate agent admitted the four 2003 killings at a Chesnee motorcycle shop that had baffled investigators for 13 years, and three more on his own land.
Published
"I just want him to go away," Lorraine Lucas said.
Her son Brian had been dead for more than 13 years when, on Friday, May 26, 2017, the man who killed him stood in a Spartanburg County courtroom in South Carolina and pleaded guilty. Todd Kohlhepp, 46, a real estate agent from the Upstate, admitted seven murders committed over well over a decade. Under a deal with prosecutors he was sentenced the same day to seven consecutive life terms, plus 60 more years for kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct. He can never be paroled, and the agreement gave up his right to appeal.
Four of the seven had died in November 2003 at the Superbike motorcycle shop in Chesnee: the owner, Scott Ponder, 30; his mother, Beverly Guy, 52, who kept the books; the service manager, Brian Lucas, 30; and a mechanic, Chris Sherbert, 26. Kohlhepp's name was on the shop's customer list, but he was never a serious suspect, and for years investigators chased a love triangle that turned out to be a dead end. He later told them he had killed the four because he believed they were making fun of him.
The case broke open on November 3, 2016, when a woman who had been missing since late August was found chained inside a storage container on his rural property near Woodruff, located after her cellphone gave off a signal. She and her boyfriend, Charles David Carver, 32, had come out to the land to do cleaning work for Kohlhepp. Carver had been shot three times in the chest. Kohlhepp told the woman he had killed a husband and wife in December 2015 and buried them there. Johnny Joe Coxie, 29, was killed at once, according to Solicitor Barry Barnette. His wife, Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie, was kept alive for six days and then shot in the back of the head on Christmas.
Barnette said he would have sought a death sentence, but South Carolina had not carried out an execution in more than six years and had no drugs to perform one. "The reality of the situation is this state doesn't have a functioning death penalty," he said. The families, he added, wanted a resolution that meant they would never have to see Kohlhepp again.
More than 50 relatives and friends filled the courtroom, and about a dozen of them spoke. Kohlhepp did not look at them. Cindy Coxie, Johnny's mother, told him that her son's 7-year-old boy had hoped for months that his father would come home. "He hates you with his little heart," she said. The woman found in the container did not attend; through her attorney, Alex Stalvey, she said she supported the deal. Defense attorney Shane Goranson said he hoped the plea would begin to bring the families some peace.
None of it was the first sign of what Kohlhepp was. He had moved to South Carolina in 2001 after serving 14 years in an Arizona prison for kidnapping: at 15, he forced a 14-year-old neighbor into his home at gunpoint, tied her up and raped her.
What this story covers. The account of the May 26, 2017, hearing, the reasons prosecutors gave for the plea deal, the statements in court and the details of the killings as the solicitor described them come from the Associated Press report filed that day. The date the woman was found and the circumstances of Charles Carver's death come from CNN's report on the plea. The woman who survived is not named here. The photograph shows Kohlhepp in jail clothing in a South Carolina courtroom; its exact date is not recorded.
Sources
- South Carolina man admits to killing 7, gets life sentence, Associated Press (Jeffrey Collins), via Fox News
- Todd Kohlhepp pleads guilty to murdering 7 over 13 years, CNN
Related News
- November 3, 2016: Missing Woman Found Chained in Container; Realtor Todd Kohlhepp Arrested