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Thread: Kenneth Lynch Sentenced to LWOP in 2006 SC Double Homicide

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    Kenneth Lynch Sentenced to LWOP in 2006 SC Double Homicide

    A double murder mystery trial has started in Lexington county and could result in a man being sentenced to the death penalty.

    The state hopes to convict Kenneth Lynch for killing his girlfriend, Portia Washington, and her granddaughter, Angelica Livingston, despite the fact that the bodies of the 2 women haven't been found. The two women have been missing since 2006.

    Previous Coverage: Kenneth Lynch Charged with Murder

    Lynch has waived his right to a jury trial, meaning the final verdict will be decided by Judge Eugene Griffith Jr.

    "My heart hurts everyday about it," said Patrick Livingston, Angelica Livingston's uncle. "We're kind of excited, but know that a lot of stuff is going to come out, and is going to make us upset. But, we have to get through this."
    Livingston was in court as Lynch appeared for the first time before the judge in Lexington county.

    "Everybody has had a little pause in their life right now just waiting for this moment to come and hoping that we get justice," said Livingston. "We just ready for this to come to an end. June 6th will be 6 years that we've been ready for this day and now that it's here, everybody's kind of nervous and shaken."



    OPENING STATEMENTS SHOULD BEGIN IN THE MORNING.
    THE SOLICITOR HAS SAID HE'S CALLING A LONG LIST OF WITNESSES WHICH MEANS THE CASE COULD LAST OVER A WEEK.

    http://www.wltx.com/news/article/184...-Death-Penalty
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    Missing girl’s blood key evidence in death penalty trial

    The blood of a long-missing 7-year-old girl allegedly killed in 2006 will be key evidence in a double murder trial in which prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

    “Blood doesn’t lie,” said 11th Circuit deputy solicitor Shawn Graham in the state’s opening argument Tuesday at the Lexington County courthouse.

    The blood of Angelica Livingston was found in the West Columbia apartment where she lived with her grandmother, Portia Washington, 53, after both were reported missing in June 2006, Graham said. Neither has been seen since. Washington’s live-in boyfriend, Kenneth Lynch, is charged with murdering them.

    “(Lynch) left behind her blood, smeared in a carpet,” Graham said.

    In remarks that took only eight minutes, Graham sketched a web of circumstantial evidence against Lynch, 52. Graham said he hoped to persuade Circuit Judge Eugene Griffith of Newberry to find Lynch guilty of killing not only Livingston, but also Washington. If Griffith finds Lynch guilty, a second phase of the trial will follow as prosecutors try to convince the judge to give Lynch the death penalty.

    In its brief opening remarks that took less than two minutes, defense lawyer Ben Stitely told Griffith the prosecution’s case is seriously flawed.

    Police disregarded evidence that would have shown someone else committed the crime, Stitely said. “We are just asking you to listen.”

    The case – which is expected to take up to three weeks to try – is unusual because the defense chose to try it in front of a judge, without a jury.

    But it is also unusual in that neither Livingston’s nor Washington’s bodies have been found.

    As lawyers argued Tuesday, Lynch, a stocky man with a shaved head, sat attentively at the defense table. He wore a coat and tie and ankle chains. Extra officers were in the courtroom. People wishing to attend the trial had to pass an additional metal detector.

    Using simple words and speaking slowly, Graham drew a picture of the missing pair’s last day and explained the prosecution’s version of how Lynch fled West Columbia in Washington’s car and was nabbed by border police at the U.S.-Canadian border a week later on the West Coast.

    “Saturday, June 10, 2006, was a normal day for Angelica and Portia,” Graham told the judge. “They went to have their hair done, they went grocery shopping and they went back to their apartment they shared with Mr. Lynch at that time. They were getting ready for church.

    “That was the last day they were heard from or seen. They leave behind friends and family that know they wouldn’t run away,” said Graham as some spectators began to weep and dab their eyes.

    “Lynch murdered them. He stole Portia’s car and he ran and he lied to cover up his horrific crimes,” Graham said.

    Four days later, on June 14, 2006, a Texas state trooper stopped Lynch in Washington’s car near El Paso – “the 2005 Ford Focus she (normally) wouldn’t let him drive,” Graham said. Lynch told the trooper he was going to Arizona pick up his wife.

    “He doesn’t have a wife. And he doesn’t have a girlfriend because he left her dead.”

    On June 17, 2006, in Washington state, Lynch tried to enter Canada but was detained by the U.S. Border Patrol because South Carolina authorities had put out a missing persons bulletin for him, Graham said.

    Seattle police then found Washington’s car abandoned in that city, its registration and license tag missing, he said.

    “Lynch is on the run, and he’s not coming back. He’s not visiting the bears in Canada; he’s not on vacation,” Graham said. Neither did Graham have much money, he said. “A man on vacation doesn’t ... not have money to get home and abandon a car with no tags.”

    On June 18, 2006, Lynch gave statements to Washington police that he rode from South Carolina to Oregon with a friend in a Cadillac and said “he used to live with a lady named Portia and her granddaughter, and that he left to see Canada.”

    On June 19, 2006, an FBI agent and a Seattle detective met with Lynch, who “continues to lie,” Graham said. “He said he quit his job and left South Carolina to go to Georgia with a friend. He said he hadn’t taken a car.” Then he switched stories, claiming that Washington gave him the car.

    “That car was Portia’s freedom ... probably the most prized thing she’d owned in her life. She was current on her payments, and she never would have given it to Mr. Lynch.”

    Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/04/18/2...#storylink=cpy
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    Missing woman told friend life was ‘hellhole’ with accused killer

    Over the objections of defense lawyers, a prosecution witness testified Wednesday that the missing- and presumed-slain Portia Washington had said her accused killer and live-in boyfriend Kenneth Lynch had made her West Columbia apartment a “hellhole.”

    “She said, ‘I don’t want to go back to that hellhole,’” longtime friend Linda Miller testified at the Lexington County Courthouse.

    Judge Eugene Griffith wouldn’t allow any more testimony about Washington’s statement. Normally, such statements – called hearsay – aren’t allowed into a trial because the person who allegedly made the statement isn’t present to be cross-examined.

    Eleventh Judicial Circuit Solicitor Donnie Myers is seeking the death penalty for Lynch, 52. He is accused of killing Washington and her 7-year-old granddaughter, Angelica Livingston, in June 2006. Their bodies have never been found.

    Immediately following their disappearance on June 10, 2006, Lynch drove Washington’s 2005 Ford Focus to Washington state, where he abandoned the car and tried to cross into Canada, prosecutors have said.

    During much of Wednesday’s testimony, prosecutors tried to establish that Washington had deep roots in the Columbia area, maintained close and frequent ties with family and friends. She never would have given Lynch or anyone else her car, and she doted on her granddaughter.

    Miller indicated that the relationship between Washington and Lynch was so bad she thought Washington should live elsewhere.

    “I said they could come stay at my house. They (Washington and Livingston) didn’t have to go home,” testified Miller. That was on June 9, 2006, the day before Washington and her granddaughter disappeared.

    Another friend, Washington’s former hairdresser, had blunter advice. “I told her she should leave him, and that I would pray for her,” Shyla Andrews testified.

    Prosecution witnesses also said that after Washington met Lynch, she became less outgoing and less happy.

    “She was beginning to change,” Miller testified.

    The trial began Monday. It is expected to last up to three weeks, and the prosecution alone has indicated it could call 80 witnesses. Lynch waived his right to a jury trial and agreed to let Griffith alone deliver a verdict of innocent or guilty.

    If Griffith finds Lynch guilty, the trial will then move to a second phase, in which both sides will put up evidence for or against the death penalty.

    Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/04/19/2...#storylink=cpy
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    Closing Arguments Complete in Double Murder Trial

    The judge presiding over a death penalty double murder trial in Lexington County has heard closing arguments and will now decide if Kenneth Lynch is guilty.

    A judge is making the decision because Lynch waived his right to a jury trial. If convicted, Lynch could face the death penalty.

    The state hopes to convict Lynch for killing his girlfriend, Portia Washington, and her granddaughter, Angelica Livingston, despite the fact that the bodies of the two haven't been found.

    "Everybody has had a little pause in their life right now just waiting for this moment to come and hoping that we get justice," said Patrick Livingston, Angelica Livingston's Uncle. "We just ready for this to come to an end. June 6th will be 6 years that we've been ready for this day and now that it's here, everybody's kind of nervous and shaken."

    The two women have been missing since 2006.

    http://www.wltx.com/news/article/185...pnews|bc|large
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    Kenneth Lynch was found guilty on two counts of murder Wednesday morning.

    The bodies of Portia Washington and her granddaughter Angelica Livingston were never found, but prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Lynch.

    Washington and Livingston were last seen alive June 10th 2006, weeks later police arrested Lynch on the other side of the country trying to cross into Canada. Investigators say Lynch ditched Washington’s car in Seattle.

    Investigators say Lynch hasn’t been very helpful since he was charged with the murders in 2008.

    Sentencing will take place after the penalty phase, which is set to begin Thursday morning.

    http://www.midlandsconnect.com/news/...4#.T6FPHFJX-uI
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    Slayings left family in ‘a living nightmare’


    A parade of grieving witnesses left many in a Lexington County courtroom in tears Thursday, the first day of testimony as a judge considers whether a 52-year-old man convicted this week of murder should be sentenced to die.

    Kenneth Lynch was found guilty Wednesday in the deaths of Portia Washington, 53, and her granddaughter, Angelica Livingston, 7, who vanished from their West Columbia apartment in June 2006.

    Their bodies have never been found. Prosecutor Donnie Myers is seeking the death penalty.

    Teresa Brown, Livingston’s mother, recalled the last time she saw her daughter, in June 2006, just before her disappearance. “She said, ‘Mom, I would stay but I got to go to cheerleader camp.’ She was so excited. She said, ‘I will call you. I love you.’ I said, ‘I love you too.’”

    Then Brown put her head in her arms and began to sob. “Oh God,” she said.

    Under Myers’ questioning, Brown testified that even today, six years later, the only time she finds peace from her grief at losing her daughter and Washington, her mother, is at night. “Every day I wake to a living nightmare, a nightmare knowing I’ll never see them again,” she wept.

    Lynch, Washington’s former live-in boyfriend, was expressionless as she testified.

    After her testimony, defense attorney Bill McGuire rose and apologized: “Ms. Brown, I’m sorry you had to testify today.” He declined to cross-examine her.

    Washington’s aunt, Vernell Bellamy, testified, at times weeping, that the loss of Washington and Livingston makes life hard for their large family, especially since their bodies were never found. “It’s devastated the family.... We loved them. We still love them.”

    Frank Dempsey, a top executive at Bob Bennett Motors, where Washington worked as a custodian, testified: “Everybody loved Portia. ... She would do anything to help anybody.” Dempsey said he helped arrange financing so she could buy a new Ford Focus — the one Lynch stole and used to try to flee the country.

    Terry Nelson, Livingston’s second-grade teacher at Claude A. Taylor Elementary in Cayce, blinked back tears as she recalled a happy girl who loved to sing — she won a music award and was in a church choir — and draw pictures.

    Lynch chose to have his death-penalty trial without a jury. Judge Eugene Griffith has two sentencing options for Lynch: the death penalty or life without parole.

    The three charges Griffith found Lynch guilty of — grand larceny, Washington’s murder and Livingston’s murder — qualify Lynch for the death penalty. He was found guilty of murdering two or more people, he was found guilty of killing a child under 11 and he was found guilty of killing while carrying out a grand larceny.

    Lynch’s lawyer argued in his opening remarks Thursday that the death penalty should only be used “for the worst of the worst,” and said Lynch had, except for some minor brushes with the law, lived a law-abiding life.

    “Justice is never served by vengeance,” said McGuire, who called the death penalty “government-sanctioned homicide.”

    Prosecutors and defense lawyers declined to discuss Thursday whether Lynch has offered to reveal where the bodies are, if he can avoid the death penalty.

    If Griffith gives Lynch the death penalty, he will join 51 other condemned men on South Carolina’s death row. The death penalty in South Carolina is carried out by lethal injection.

    Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/05/04/2...#storylink=cpy
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    Solicitor seeks death for convicted killer

    Describing Kenneth Lynch as a “ticking time-bomb getting meaner by the day,” 11th Circuit Solicitor Donnie Myers asked a judge Monday to sentence him to death by lethal injection for the 2006 murders of a 53-year-old grandmother and her young granddaughter.

    “He even stole the baby’s money,” Myers told Judge Eugene Griffith in his 23-minute closing argument during the trial’s penalty phase at Lexington County’s Westbrook courthouse. Trial testimony last month indicated Lynch raided the doll-bank of Angelica Livingston, a 7-year-old second-grader, around the time he killed her.

    Griffith is trying the case without a jury, at Lynch’s request, and will be considering a sentence today.

    Mocking Monday’s defense efforts to show Lynch’s human side, Myers — a veteran of dozens of death penalty trials known for channeling victims’ suffering and outrage — stepped to the side of the courtroom and uncovered a large white piece of paper.

    On it, in foot-high, blood-red capital letters was written the word “EVIL.” Then Myers picked up a photograph of Lynch and taped it on the paper.

    “Evil has a face to go with it — and this is it,” shouted Myers, sarcastically calling Lynch “killin’ Kenny.”

    Lynch, 52, was convicted last week of the murders of Portia Washington and her granddaughter, who were last seen in June 2006 at the West Columbia apartment they shared with Lynch.

    Their bodies have never been found.

    But during the guilt-or-innocence phase of the trial, Myers and assistant prosecutors Rick Hubbard and Shawn Graham put up some 55 witnesses to show that the two had been killed, and that Lynch was the only one who could have done it.

    Evidence weighed by the judge, who found Lynch guilty last week after almost two days of deliberation, included Livingston’s blood at the apartment, a trip across the country in Washington’s stolen car, an attempt to get into Canada and repeated false statements Lynch made after his apprehension in Washington state.

    Under state law, Griffith only has two sentencing options: death or life in prison without parole.

    “Both outcomes are a death sentence,” defense lawyer Ben Stitely told the judge Monday in a 13-minute argument, reminding him that whichever choice he makes, Lynch “will spend the rest of his life in jail until he dies.”

    Stitely argued Lynch has a human side — he helped his younger brother make money and has an adult daughter — and is no career criminal. Lynch’s brother and an aunt testified on his behalf Monday.

    “It’s horrible what happened,” acknowledged Stitely, “but nothing we can do at this point changes what has happened. ... It’s not the job of the court simply to wreak vengeance.”

    Under state law, the death penalty is reserved for murders with certain aggravating circumstances. This case met three qualifications: two or more people were killed, the death of a child and killing during a grand larceny.

    To stress the legal as well as emotional grounds for giving the death penalty, Myers stressed the apparent brutality of the young girl’s killing, Lynch’s lies about the crime, and his refusal to say what happened to the bodies.

    Holding up a photo of a green chair in Washington’s apartment under which Livingston’s blood was found, Myers said, “That’s where she came to her end — right there ... A battle! A fight for life with a man too big and a child too small, a body too weak, and a body (Lynch’s) too strong. ... A heart filled with murderous intent, snuffing the life out of that baby.”

    Myers reminded the judge how unrepentant Lynch has been.

    “Somewhere, there’s a 53-year-old woman’s body, a 7-year-old’s body, whose location is known only to an evil murderer,” said Myers, his voice rising to a loud growl.

    “Where’s the mercy here?” said Myers. “Show mercy to those who give mercy. Deny mercy to those who are merciless ... The death penalty itself screams out for this case.”

    Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/05/08/2...#storylink=cpy
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  8. #8
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    Spineless judge.

    Lynch gets life without parole in deaths of girlfriend, her granddaughter

    Kenneth Lynch has avoided the death penalty.

    Judge Eugene Griffith has sentenced Lynch to life in prison without parole in the deaths of his live-in girlfriend and her 7-year-old granddaughter. The two disappeared in 2006 from the West Columbia apartment they shared with Lynch and whose bodies were never found.

    Describing Lynch as a “parasitic leech” and a “ticking time-bomb getting meaner by the day,” 11th Circuit Solicitor Donnie Myers had asked the judge to sentence Lynch to death by lethal injection for the killing of 53-year-old Portia Washington and her young granddaughter.

    “He even stole the baby’s money,” Myers told Griffith in his 23-minute closing argument this week during the trial’s penalty phase at Lexington County’s Westbrook courthouse. Trial testimony last month indicated Lynch raided the doll-bank of Angelica Livingston, a 7-year-old second-grader, around the time he killed her.

    Griffith tried the case without a jury at Lynch’s request.

    Mocking Monday’s defense efforts to show Lynch’s human side, Myers — a veteran of dozens of death penalty trials known for channeling victims’ suffering and outrage — stepped to the side of the courtroom and uncovered a large white piece of paper.

    On it, in foot-high, blood-red capital letters was written the word “EVIL.” Then Myers picked up a photograph of Lynch and taped it on the paper.

    “Evil has a face to go with it — and this is it,” shouted Myers, sarcastically calling Lynch “Killin’ Kenny.”

    Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/05/08/2...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  9. #9
    pcjm
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    a woman and a CHILD - not TWO women....

    a woman and a CHILD - not TWO women....

    Quote Originally Posted by Heidi View Post
    Closing Arguments Complete in Double Murder Trial

    The judge presiding over a death penalty double murder trial in Lexington County has heard closing arguments and will now decide if Kenneth Lynch is guilty.

    A judge is making the decision because Lynch waived his right to a jury trial. If convicted, Lynch could face the death penalty.

    The state hopes to convict Lynch for killing his girlfriend, Portia Washington, and her granddaughter, Angelica Livingston, despite the fact that the bodies of the two haven't been found.

    "Everybody has had a little pause in their life right now just waiting for this moment to come and hoping that we get justice," said Patrick Livingston, Angelica Livingston's Uncle. "We just ready for this to come to an end. June 6th will be 6 years that we've been ready for this day and now that it's here, everybody's kind of nervous and shaken."

    The two women have been missing since 2006.

    http://www.wltx.com/news/article/185...pnews|bc|large

  10. #10
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    truTv is running Lynch's trial this week from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. EST
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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