Execution set for SC inmate who killed 3 and left a bloody message for police

COLUMBIA — A death row inmate who killed three people 21 years ago as he taunted police with a message in blood, then beat up an officer after he was jailed, is scheduled for execution Nov. 14, according to a Friday death warrant.

Stephen Bryant, 44, is slated to be the fifth person in the state put to death this year and the seventh total since executions resumed last September following an unintended 13-year hiatus.

Bryant pleaded guilty in 2008 to a number of crimes, including three Sumter County murders, four years prior.

He was sentenced to death for the second murder.

“Victim number four in two weeks, catch me if you can,” he wrote with blood on the wall for police to find, according to court filings.

Unless a court steps in or the governor grants him clemency, which Gov. Henry McMaster has not done for any other inmate, Bryant will die by his choice of lethal injection, firing squad or electrocution.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down his final pending appeal, claiming his mother’s alcohol use while pregnant made him incompetent for execution.

Bryant’s attorneys made a last-ditch attempt to halt his coming death warrant, claiming the shutdown of the U.S. government requires his federal public defenders to work without pay, hindering their ability to file any necessary appeals on his behalf. The state Supreme Court unanimously denied his request in a two-sentence order Friday.

Bryant’s crime spree began with a burglary Oct. 5, according to court records. He committed a second burglary three days later, then shot a fisherman, Clinton Brown, in the back in Richland County. Brown survived the shooting.

On Oct. 9, Bryant picked up his coworker, Cliff Gainey, at his home and took him to a convenience store, then out on a drive. Bryant shot Gainey three times, then left his body on the side of the road and returned to Gainey’s home, which he robbed.

Two days later, Bryant killed 62-year-old Willard Tietjen in his Sumter home. After shooting Tietjen nine times, Bryant ransacked his house looking for items to steal, then smoked cigarettes and a cigar and used Tietjen’s computer.

Bryant answered calls to Tietjen’s phone from his wife and daughter by telling them he had killed Tietjen.

When police arrived at the scene, after Bryant had left, they found cigarette burns on Tietjen’s eyes and several notes left behind, including the bloody message on the wall.

Two days after that, Bryant greeted 35-year-old Chris Burgess at a convenience store. Burgess put his motorcycle in the back of Bryant’s truck and drove off with him, the clerk later recounted. Similar to how he killed Gaines, Bryant shot Burgess twice and left his body on the side of the road, according to court records.

SC death row inmate who killed 3 reaches end of appeals, can receive death warrant

Police caught Bryant, who witnesses had identified, that same day. Bryant confessed to the crimes, according to court filings.

While in jail the following year, Bryant attacked a detention officer, punching him multiple times and continuing to beat him after he collapsed, according to court records. Bryant pleaded guilty to that attack along with the other crimes in 2008.

Bryant received a death sentence for killing Tietjen and life sentences for the other two slayings, plus 100 years combined for his other crimes, according to court records.

Bryant’s defense attorneys said he was high on methamphetamine when he killed Tietjen and had a history of drug abuse to cope with childhood sexual abuse.

In an appeal, his attorneys claimed the judge declined to consider testimony during Bryant’s sentencing about that abuse.

Courts rejected that appeal, alongside all others Bryant has filed.

Editor’s note: This article was changed Saturday, Oct. 18, to correct what Bryant’s attorneys claimed on appeal.