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A whirlwind court week capped a two-month effort to up murder convictions while increasing savings for 1st Judicial Circuit taxpayers to more than $1,500.
And that savings is per day, according to costs calculated for housing one inmate at regional detention centers in Orangeburg and Dorchester counties.
"I wanted to get the trial conviction rate up," 1st Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe said. "The trial rate in this (Orangeburg) county has been hovering around 50 percent. And it has been less than that."
Other figures that might be just as well-received are the number of those inmates who are no longer answering roll call on the prosecutor's jail list.
"When I started on Jan. 12, we had 82 inmates at the Orangeburg Detention Center for more than 90 days," Pascoe said. "And 51 of those had been in jail for more than six months."
At the end of Thursday's court session, those numbers tallied 53 and 38, respectively. And that translates into a total savings for taxpayers at about $1,560 per day.
Two months into Pascoe's administration, prosecutors have not failed to bring home a guilty verdict as a result of a trial.
"I'm very proud of my staff as we have a 100 percent trial conviction rate," he said. "It's not going to stay at 100 percent or anywhere near that. But we're going to strive for perfection."
Of the 53 pending murder cases in the 1st Circuit, nine have been adjudicated in the last two months, four in this week alone.
On Monday, Robert "Jimmy" Miller of Rowesville Road, Orangeburg, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in connection with last year's fatal shooting of an Olar man.
Miller was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison and five years of probation after his release.
The 50-year-old had originally been charged with murder, but that charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter after a review of the case details, Pascoe said.
"The difference with murder, there is malice aforethought," he said. "With manslaughter, you have heat of passion. Certainly, in the Miller case, you have a bad argument that occurred at the defendant's house. There was certainly no premeditation on Miller's part."
Monday's second murder case involved a 20-year-old Jamie Grays, a Cordova man charged with the shooting death of a 15-year-old acquaintance during a card game last year.
Grays' murder charge was reduced and his case moved after a negotiated involuntary manslaughter charge.
Witnesses said family and friends of Harold "Scooter" Floyd Jr., 15, the youth shot and killed during the incident, blamed the reduction of the charge on race.
After Grays was sentenced to four years in prison, deputies were forced to escort about 15 of Floyd's family members to the exit doors when they continued to be unruly.
That case lacked malice aforethought as well, Pascoe said. In addition, the victim had just pointed the handgun at Grays and pulled the trigger only moments before Grays attempted to do the same.
"Shortly after that, Mr. Floyd pointed (the handgun) at Mr. Grays and pulled the trigger and the gun didn't discharge," Deputy Solicitor Don Sorenson said at the hearing. "Mr. Grays picked it up and pointed it at Mr. Floyd and pulled the trigger, evidently, just as had been done to himself. Unfortunately, this time, it discharged."
Another case moved this week after a reduction of charge was that of Juan Escalante, a 28-year-old man charged with felony driving under the influence in the death of a North Charleston college student.
Escalante's charge was negotiated to an involuntary manslaughter charge, which resulted in his pleading guilty and receiving a five-year sentence.
Pascoe said the charge should have been reduced two months after Escalante's arrest when the toxicology report came back revealing no traces of alcohol in his system.
"In October 2003, the prosecutors handling the case should have known from the toxicology report that this defendant was not guilty of felony DUI," Pascoe said. "Escalante sat in jail for 19 months for a crime he did not commit."
Defending Escalante was Orangeburg County Chief Public Defender Michael Culler, who agreed with Pascoe's decision to reduce the charge.
"It wasn't felony DUI, and it's been on the docket for two years," Culler said. "I give David credit; he's been objective in handling the cases."
Perhaps one of the most brutal slayings of 2004 was resolved Wednesday when Harry Lee Zimmerman, 41, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison.
Following the latest argument in what police say was an ongoing dispute with her maternal relatives, Zimmerman placed his own 5-month-old child on the ground and shot her with a high-powered rifle.
"It's horrendous. I can't think of anything more evil than a father killing his own child," Pascoe said after the sentencing. "This was about as innocent and perfect as you can be. At 5 months, you have never done anything wrong in your life."
Other murder cases that have recently been adjudicated included that of Levi Bing, who last week pleaded guilty to murder in the shooting death of Santee businessman Randy Bills. Bing was sentenced to 40 years for the killing.
Meanwhile, Pascoe said his office is working on a case that is six years old. Moses McBride was arrested in November 1998 after the body of his 5-year-old cousin was found in the trunk of a car near North.
The question in McBride's case, Pascoe said, was mental competency.
In 2001, an evaluation was completed that indicated the Gaston man was, at the time, competent for trial.
"Now it's 2005, and we have to re-evaluate him," Pascoe said. "Every day I look at our jail list and see his name. And I don't like it."
-- T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5516.