South Carolina Criminal Lawyer Blog

Horry County Police are investigating three house fires near Loris, South Carolina and currently believe it was arson. Arson is the malicious burning of dwelling house of another and can be a first degree felony, second degree felony or third degree felony. A solicitor must prove each element beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.f

If a person is killed during the fire, the crime constitutes felony murder. A person is charged with felony murder when there is a homicide during the commission of the following state or federal crimes: burglary, arson, rape, robbery, kidnapping. Federal law also includes carjacking and terrorism. Even if the death is accidental, a defendant can be charged with manslaughter. If a person breaks in to a home and enters it to start a fire, the defendant would most likely be charged with burglary and arson.

The police in Loris are entertaining the possibility that the fires could have been started out of revenge, which is very common, or the fires could have been started by someone who is infatuated by fire. Local authorities are worried that someone may be injured if the fires continue in Loris.

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The Charleston Courier is reporting that a Conway, South Carolina man has been charged with murder. The murder charge stems from a road rage incident in Horry County. Horry County Sheriff's department arrested David Pacheco on Saturday night at the scene of the shooting. This Conway murder charge may not be as strong of a case as one might think. The Charleston Post and Courier are reporting that Pacheco shot and killed Victor Arce after Arce intentionally caused a wreck. Pacheco will have some real defenses to these charges. The Horry County Solicitor's office will prosecute the case and the case will be before a General Sessions judge in Conway.

Pacheco will have the opportunity to hire a criminal defense lawyer in Conway or any criminal defense lawyer in South Carolina. Pacheco will most likely not face the death penalty in this case because there was not premeditation prior to the killing. Many times the a case with similar facts would expose a defendant to a plea offer ranging from 10 years to 25 years. Unless Pacheco is willing to plead guilty to many years in prison, he must get a trial attorney to prepare his case. Many times people hire lawyers who have never had a trial or litigated any case to verdict.

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The Horry County coroner has confirmed that the death of a 17 month old child in Galivants Ferry was from blunt head trauma. The grandmother of the child and her boyfriend will most likely be charged with murder, child neglect and child abuse. The grandmother appears to be only 37 years old and her boyfriend 30 years old. Both will have a right to a bond hearing before a Circuit Court Judge in Conway. Any bond that is set for these two defendants will be a rather high number. There are several defenses to this case, but most will require the testimony of an expert witness regarding the cause of death. It will also be important to ask the court to preserve the childs body for examinaiton by a defense expert. The preservation of any possible evidence that could vendicate the defendant is extremely important. The autopsy was performed by the Horry County Coroner, yet the child was in Charleston at the time of death. This means that there were several procedures performed on the child outside of Horry County which must be investigated. If the defendants have
A manslaughter charge would help with limiting the defendants prison time exposure. A good defense attorney will have to move quickly in defending this case and trying to convince the solicitor's office to indict the defendants on manslaughter instead of murder.

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Immediately after I discussed this case on the blog, authorities in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania have discovered the body of a woman who may be connected with the newborn brought to the hospital by Andrea Curry-Demus. Ms. Curry-Demus previously claimed to have purchased the newborn for $1,000.00. However, a woman's body that was bound and gagged was discovered in an apartment belonging to Ms. Curry-Demus. There was evidence of a partial evisceration and a placenta was found at the scene.
With this new evidence, Ms. Curry-Demus could be facing a variety of new charges. These charges include: murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, depraved-heart murder, felony murder, manslaughter, and kidnapping. In Pennsylvania, a person convicted of first degree murder may receive the death penalty. However, not the electric chair. Use of the electric chair was abolished in 1990, now like most states, lethal injection is used.
If the state decides to pursue the death penalty against Ms. Curry-Demus, there will be two phases. First the trial phase during which the evidence against her for the murder would be presented by the state. If convicted of first degree murder, the second phase of the proceedings would begin, her sentencing hearing.
During the sentencing phase, any mitigating factors are presented by her defense attorney. Ms. Curry-Demus may have an affirmitive defense, insanity. However, if her attorneys decide to proceed with the insanity defense, a pretrial motion must be filed before the start of the trial. The State is entitled to notice of this defense.

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http://www.criminal-trial-lawyer.org/index.html Three individuals have been arrested for murder by the Myrtle Beach Police Department. The murder occurred during Bike Week and is said to have been related to a parking space dispute. A Coastal Carolina University student was killed in the incident. Myrtle Beach police have 911 calls that describe the incident. This type of murder is very uncommon for this area of the country. Fights and gun battles are not uncommon for the streets of Miami, but the streets of Myrtle Beach are usually safe from this type of conflict. The three defendants have not been indicted by the local solicitor on this case. There will most likely be an indictment in the coming weeks. The defendants could face the death penalty depending on what information investigators provide to the solicitor's office.
A first degree murder indictment will allow the solicitor's office to decide whether to seek the death penalty on one or all the defendants. Evidence of the murder will be centered eye witnesses and the 911 calls that were recorded. Having defended clients for murder in the past, I can assure you that time is of the essence in preparing a good defense. The primary defenses from the facts reported to date would be mistaken identity or self defense. Independent investigations are critical to either support or contradict the investigation of the police department. The solicitor's office will most likely try to get one of the defendants to testify against the others. This will increase the likelihood of a conviction. In the federal system this is called flipping a defendant. Federal cases are almost always based on "flipping or flips", whether they are witnesses or co-defendants.

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