U.S. Marshals tracked down an escapee from Alabama who fled to South Carolina before being captured.Marshals Service spokeswoman Amanda Lyons said Thursday that Johnathan Nathaniel Golden was apprehended in a hotel near Greenville.Golden and four others escaped from the Elmore County Jail in Wetumpka, Al., on Dec. 14. Lyons says Golden fled and was suspected of stealing a car with firearms inside....

Amanda Knox headed home to the United States a free woman Tuesday, the morning after an Italian appeals court dramatically overturned the American student's conviction of sexually assaulting and brutally slaying her British roommate.The Italy-US Foundation, which has championed Knox's cause, said she departed shortly after noon (1000 GMT) from Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport on the way to London,...

An Italian appeals court threw out Amanda Knox's murder conviction Monday and ordered the young American freed, a stunning reversal four years after she was jailed for the death of her British roommate.Knox, 24, collapsed in tears after the verdict overturning her 2009 conviction was read out, her lawyers draping their arms around her in support. Her co-defendant, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, also ...

Two men wanted in the shooting death of a New York City high school basketball star have been arrested in South Carolina.Deputy U.S. Marshal Rick Long told The New York Times that 20-year-old Robert Cartagena and 21-year-old Tyshawn Brockington were found in a closet in an apartment complex Wednesday.U.S. Marshal's spokeswoman Amanda Lyons confirmed Thursday that Cartagena and Brockington had been...

Guignard Park in Cayce is expected to remain closed through Labor Day weekend because of a sewage leak that dumped wastewater into a creek at the park. But city officials said they have pinpointed the source of the leak and hope to have repairs to a sewer line made by Saturday morning. The leak was coming from a hole in the side of an aging concrete pipe near Brookland Cayce High School, city man...

A West Columbia man was convicted last week in a Lexington County court of voluntary manslaughter for shooting a man in a 2008 bar fight.Andrew E. Torrence, 31, of West Columbia was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison by Judge Knox McMahon, Solicitor Donnie Meyers said. He also was convicted of possession of a weapon during a violent crime after the four-day trial.On Sept. 28, 2008, Torrence pi...

Eleventh Circuit Judge Knox McMahon sentenced 19-year-old Lexie Dial III to life in prison for homicide by child abuse Tuesday in a Lexington County courtroom.Dial was found guilty last week by a Lexington County jury of killing his 5-month-old son, Joshua, by shaking him to death.The incident happened in January 2010. Since then, Dial has been in jail awaiting trial.The case was prosecuted by the...

A Lexington County jury Thursday convicted a 28-year-old man of numerous charges involving a particularly violent 2008 home invasion in Batesburg-Leesville.Gregory Velez, of Lexington, was sentenced to 25-years in prison by Judge Knox McMahon following the verdict.Velez was one of four heavily-armed men who entered a Batesburg-Leesville home on Aug. 13, 2008. They had an assault rifle, a shotgun,...

Lexington County Sheriff's Department released a recording of the 911 call that alerted them Wednesday morning that a drunk and agitated Chancey Foy Smith was heading to his estranged girlfriend's house with a loaded gun.Smith shot and killed Amanda Peake and her two young children, 9-year-old Cameron Peake and 6-year-old Sarah Peake, at their Farm Chase Drive home in Red Bank before turning the ...

A state board has denied parole for a South Carolina mother convicted of smothering her 7-year-old son.The Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services on Wednesday denied early release for 30-year-old Amanda Raegan Smith.Smith was sentenced to eight years in prison last year for involuntary manslaughter and obstruction of justice in the death of Devon Epps in Greenville.Smith told authorit...

The city of Greenville is hoping to become a model of energy efficiency.The Greenville News reported Sunday that the city is talking with corporate giant General Electric Co. about electric car fleets, hybrid water heaters, LED lights and downtown upgrades as part of an energy sustainability project.GE officials would not comment to the newspaper about the plan.Mayor Knox White says GE is doing so...

A 13-year-old girl missing for days was found bound and gagged but alive in a basement Sunday, and authorities hoped a man charged with kidnapping her might lead them to her mother, brother and another woman who disappeared with her.Matthew J. Hoffman, 30, was arrested at his Mount Vernon home, where Sarah Maynard was found, Knox County Sheriff David Barber said. He said the girl was hospitalized ...

General Norman Johnson, lead singer of the popular beach music trio Chairmen of the Board, died Wednesday. He was 67."It saddens me to announce the passing of our friend and hero General Johnson," wrote singer Ken Knox, a member of the band, on their Facebook page. "He held a special place in his heart for each and everyone of you. His music will live on."It was unclear how Johnson died; however t...

We've added a whopping 648 new records, more than a month's worth, of health inspections for restaurants, bars, cafeterias and other eateries in Kershaw, Lexington and Richland counties.The inspections were carried out between Aug. 13 and Sept. 24 by Department of Health and Environmental Control inspectors.Fifty-seven area establishments in that period earned exceptional scores between 98 and 100...

A South Carolina mother charged with murdering her 7-year-old son after claiming a carjacker had smothered the child is expected in court.Solicitor Bob Ariail's office says a hearing for 29-year-old Amanda Raegan Smith is scheduled Tuesday in Greenville.Smith was charged with murder in November 2007. Three months earlier, Smith had told authorities a knife-wielding carjacker forced her to drive to...

Police are looking for Terrance Lopez Mayo, 17, of West Columbia. Mayo forced his way into a residence on North Avenue around 3:20 a.m. on June 30, where he pistol whipped and robbed a man.Mayo then fled the scene in the victim’s vehicle that has since been recovered.Mayo is charged with assault and battery, criminal conspiracy, armed robbery with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm during th...

An Irmo man has received a sentence of life in prison in the shaking death of his infant son.Alexander Edward Lynch, 24, of 1220 Meredith Drive was sentenced to life imprisonment by Lexington Judge Knox McMahon for the crime of homicide by child abuse. The child, Rashard Lynch, was 57 days old and the biological son of the defendant.The office of Solicitor Donnie Myers released this description of...

A North man arrested Tuesday is accused of stealing thousands of prescription pills from Lexington County pharmacies, and his girlfriend is in jail for not turning him in.Officers from several Lexington County agencies and the U.S. Marshal’s Service arrested Brainen Jason Borchers, 31, of Savannah Highway, North, and Amanda Jennea Smith, 26, of Frink Street, Cayce, after receiving a tip they...

A Lexington County man and woman have been charged with leaving two preschool girls alone in a locked, urine-soaked room in a Pelion house.The girls, ages 2 and 4, have been taken into custody by the S.C. Department of Social Services and placed in foster care, Lexington County Sheriff James Metts said Thursday.“The children were hungry, frightened and crying” when deputies found them,...

The former principal of a dilapidated South Carolina school thrust into the national spotlight by President Barack Obama is receiving an award.The South Carolina NAACP is recognizing Amanda Burnette on Friday for raising awareness about education iniquities in the state's rural schools.Burnette is the former principal of Dillon County's J.V. Martin Junior High School. She now works for the state E...

A Winthrop University graduate has given the school a $2 million estate gift -- that will be used to help pay for scholarships.The gift -- one of the largest ever received by Winthrop -- would give the school 75 percent of the donor's estate, estimated at $2 million, at the time of her death.The donor, who asked to remain anonymous, describes her own Winthrop experience as life-changing and one th...

A self-proclaimed preacher accused of scamming parishioners in Maine has been jailed along with his wife in a dispute over custody of her two girls, police said.Colin Haag Jr. and Amanda Haag, who are charged with kidnapping and criminal restraint, came to the attention of police after the biological father of Amanda Haag's children showed up in Jonesport looking for the girls, who are ages 7 and ...

A South Carolina family spotlighted Sunday on the television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" say they are trying to cope with the bigger bills that came with their big new house.Amanda and Derrick Suggs told The Sun News of Myrtle Beach that their new house, built by the show in January, is about three times larger than their old one. That means higher taxes, insurance and utility bills."The...

For 20 years, doughnuts have run along a series of signature conveyer belts all the way up to the ceiling of the Krispy Kreme building on Knox Abbott Drive in Cayce as children and the young at heart gazed at them through a glass wall.When the refurbished doughnut store opens today, those belts will be gone - replaced by a streamlined, floor-level model.The doughnuts will still be the same, and yo...

Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey has chosen the two-star general in charge of the U.S. Army Armor School at Fort Knox, Ky., as the next commander of the service's largest training installation.Army officials said on Tuesday that Maj. Gen. James M. Milano will head the U.S. Army Basic Combat Training Center of Excellence at Fort Jackson.Milano, born in Dearborn, Mich., is both commandant at Fo...

At 5 a.m. on the Army's largest training base, soldiers grunt through the kinds of stretches, body twists and bent-leg raises that might be seen in an "ab blaster" class at a suburban gym.Adapting to battlefield experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Army is revamping its basic training regimen for the first time in three decades by nixing five-mile runs and bayonet drills in favor of zigzag spri...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. | Mikhail Torrance's 9-foot jumper broke a tie at 62 with 57 seconds left, and Alabama rallied from an 18-point deficit in the second half to beat South Carolina 68-63 Thursday in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.Alabama (17-14) won a third straight game against an SEC opponent for the first time this season and beat the Gamecocks (15-16) for the second ...