SC killer prosecuted as adult at age 12. Chester’s Pittman, now 33, set for release
Andrew Dys
Fri, January 20, 2023
A few days after Thanksgiving in 2001 in rural Chester County, volunteer firefighters responded to a house fire.
Inside they found two people dead. But the fire didn’t kill them — shotgun blasts did.
A person believed to be among South Carolina’s youngest-ever convicted killers shot and killed Joe and Joy Pittman, the child’s grandparents, in their bed and then burned their house down to try and cover up the crime. Kristen Avery Pittman, then 12 and known by a different name, made up a story about a non-existent Black man who robbed the place and kidnapped the kid before the kid escaped.
Now, Pittman is set for release on Feb. 1 at 33 years old.
Pittman has legally changed her name and identifies as a transgender woman, public records show. The policy of The Herald and parent company McClatchy call for using the name and pronouns that align with a transgender person’s gender identity.
“I as well as my family know that I have identified as a ‘female’ most of my life but due to my incarceration at twelve (12) years old I was not able to take the steps of transition that I needed over the years,” Pittman wrote in a lawsuit against South Carolina prison officials.
A federal lawsuit filed by Pittman sought medical approval for gender confirmation surgery and prescription hormone medication while incarcerated. The treatment was denied and the lawsuit was dismissed, court documents show.
Pittman killed her grandparents after being disciplined for a fight on the school bus. She was also on anti-depressants despite the young age. The story became a national debate over what age a child should be prosecuted as an adult, and whether anti-depressants had any role in the crimes.
The yearslong prosecution of Pittman being tried as an adult involved an overturned verdict and an eventual guilty plea. It became an international news story, covered by the likes of CBS, CNN and Larry King, network news shows such as 48 Hours and other media.
Why will be Pittman be released?
Pittman never had a parole hearing while in prison because manslaughter convictions are not parole eligible crimes under South Carolina law. Release can come only at the end of 85% of the sentence, state law shows.
Under S.C. law a person convicted of a violent felony such as manslaughter must serve 85% of the time and is not parole eligible, according to the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Service and the S.C. Department of Corrections.
Pittman has reached the end of a 25-year sentence after spending almost 22 total years in custody since age 12, South Carolina officials say.
That 22 years included all the jail time from arrest in 2001 before the 2005 trial for both murders, according to spokesperson Chrysti Shain of the corrections department. It includes juvenile prison time afterward from 2005 until July 2010 when the manslaughter plea was handled.
The 2005 convictions were overturned because Pittman’s defense lawyers in the 2005 trial did not tell Pittman or a court-appointed guardian ad litem that prosecutors offered a plea deal during the trial, according to court documents and testimony. That guardian, Chester lawyer Milton Hamilton, told The Herald in 2015 that he would have advised Pittman to take the plea deal.
Hamilton said in a phone interview this week he is glad Pittman has served the sentence.
Pittman eventually pleaded guilty in December 2010 to two counts of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to two concurrent 25-year sentences. The guilty plea was in adult court.
Pittman’s sentence is set to end Feb. 23, but offenders are generally released on the first day of the month of eligibility, officials said.
Pittman is set for release from Ridgeland prison in Jasper County on Feb. 1, according to spokespersons Anita Dantzler of the S.C. PPP, and records from the SCDC.
Pittman is scheduled to live in York County after release, officials said. Because of that, Pittman will be assigned a York County probation agent, Dantzler said.
She’s still listed in South Carolina prison records under her old name. Asked about that, SCDC said it enters a person’s new name as their “legal name” after receiving relevant court documents. The person’s commitment name — the name on the sentencing sheet — remains the same in the SCDC system.
Public safety: Will Pittman be supervised?
South Carolina law has safeguards in place to protect public safety after the release of offenders convicted of violent crimes sentenced to more than 20 years in prison, officials said.
According to Dantzler, Pittman must complete two years of a state supervision program that starts after release Feb. 1.
Pittman will be required to meet with an agent in the York County probation office and during routine home visits, Dantzler said. The frequency of reporting will be determined after an offender risk and needs assessment, Dantzler said.
Pittman will have no curfew, electronic monitoring, or any other restrictions other than not contacting the victim’s family, Dantzler said.
The crimes
On Nov. 29, 2001, Pittman stole her grandparents’ truck after the killings, then drove to neighboring Cherokee County where she was found by hunters.
The shotgunned bodies of Joy and Joe Pittman were found in the bed after the fire burned out.
Pittman initially told police a Black man broke into the house and kidnapped her. Chester deputies said the story did not add up, and Pittman soon confessed to killing both grandparents and setting the fire to try and cover it up.
Chester County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Pittman for two counts of murder.
“I aimed at the bed and shot four times, “ Pittman told Chester deputies the day after the killings in a confession that was part of the court record. “I really didn’t care then.”
The 2005 trial
Despite her young age, a family court judge ruled after court hearings that Pittman should stand trial as an adult.
Pre-trial publicity forced a change of venue from Chester County, where news about Pittman had been almost daily for three years. The 2005 murder trial was held in Charleston and covered live by Court TV, cable and network news and media from around the world.
Prosecutors said from the beginning Pittman executed Joy and Joe Pittman during a scheme that could only be done by a ruthless killer who thought and acted like a grown-up.
Pittman was represented at trial in 2005 by a team of lawyers from across the country who took the case. The defense team at trial in 2005 blamed involuntary intoxication of the the anti-depressants for the killings.
By 2005, Pittman had grown to over 6 feet tall. To combat the change for jurors and show her age when the crimes happened in 2001, defense lawyers used a cutout picture of a younger Pittman in court.
Headlines around the country from the New York Times and other national media talked about the Zoloft drugs involved in the case.
The company that made the anti-depressants denied in statements that there was any evidence the drugs led to violence.
The Charleston jury in 2005 found Pittman guilty of two counts of murder. The judge gave Pittman the lowest possible sentence for two murders — 30 years for each, to run concurrent.
Convictions overturned
But those convictions were overturned in July 2010 after Pittman filed a lawsuit against defense lawyers. That civil trial showed the judge, prosecutors and trial lawyers discussed plea deals Pittman and the court-appointed guardinan ad litem were never told about by the defense team despite having a legal right to be told.
The judge in that lawsuit ruled the convictions could not stand.
A new trial was ordered, but Pittman in 2010 took a plea deal to voluntary manslaughter at the Chester County Courthouse, and was sentenced to 25 years.
The plea ended more than nine years of legal wrangling and national debate over how Pittman should be prosecuted because of her age and the effects of the prescribed medication on children.
Authorities: Pittman received a proper sentence
The people involved in Pittman’s arrest and prosecution are no longer involved in the criminal justice system in the roles they were in from 2001 to 2010. People involved in the prosecution case at that time said Pittman was convicted as an adult under South Carolina law and should serve the full sentence.
Current law enforcement and prosecutors in Chester County, where the crimes took place, said the 2001 killings, investigation and prosecution happened before they were serving in office and declined to comment on the Pittman case or the expected release.
Former 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office prosecutors John Meadors and Barney Giese, who were assigned by South Carolina courts to prosecute Pittman in the 2005 trial, said at the 2010 guilty plea the crimes were adult crimes and the only reason a plea deal was ever offered during the 2005 trial was because of Pittman’s age of 12 at the time of the killings.
Giese said in 2010 the case was handled from investigation through resolution, “the right way.”
And now, whether Pittman should have been prosecuted as an adult or not, the prison sentence is almost over.
No comments:
Post a Comment