Who is Brad Sigmon? South Carolina murderer to be executed for the first time in 15 years
Brad Sigmon testified during the trial in July 2002: “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury.
The South Carolina killer was placed on death row after pleading guilty to his ex-girlfriend’s parents and hit them nine times on the head with a baseball bat.
More than two decades later, the 67-year-old will become the first prisoner to die since 2010 murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner and the oldest person ever executed in South Carolina.
On March 7, Sigmon will be tied to a chair with a top of his head, aiming to mark his heart in the death chamber of the Broad River Correctional agency in Colombia, where he is held.
Standing about 15 feet away, three volunteers are expected to fire at him through a small opening.
In June 2021, Sigmon avoided “Old Sparky”, a 113-year-old electric chair located in the downtown Columbia Correctional Institution, as the law gives dead prisoners the legal right to choose the way they execute, including the shooting squad – not available yet.
Sigmon almost avoids electric chairs in 2021 (South Carolina Department of Corrections)
He was again given probation for that year because the state did not supply lethal injections, and received a third probation in May 2022.
Sigmon chose his execution method, and the other two options were fatal injections and electric shocks.
The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled last July to allow executions to recover after 13 years, killing the murderer Freddie Eugene Owens was killed in a fatal injection in September 2024 two months later.
Sigmon was not worried that it would “burn him alive.”
His attorney added that he decided not to take the deadly pentagonal dose after three fatal injectors in the state had not been declared dead for at least 20 minutes.
Opponents of the death penalty call on Gov. Henry McMaster to grant Sigmon a leniency shortly after issuing a death arrest warrant on February 7. However, there was no South Carolina governor before that sentenced death row inmates.
King said Sigmon’s online prison record has no violent crimes and is “deeply regretful.”
His attorney filed a motion to the state Supreme Court on Wednesday to suspend his execution. They said he was forced to choose violent death by firing the squad because there was no more information and he believed that the fatal injection would lead to a tortuous death.
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Sigmon will be the first dead prisoner to die in the U.S. since 2010 (South Carolina via the AP’s Department of Corrections)
Sigmon and his partner Rebecca Barbare had been in a relationship for three years before ending in early 2001. The couple has been living together at a trailer park near Greenville’s girlfriend’s parents, David and Gladys Larke.
Sigmon told friends after smoking cracks and drinking, he “left Becky the way she did” and “tethered her parents.”
When Barbare took his kids to school, Sigmon arrived at the Larkes house around 8 a.m. with a baseball bat that he used to kill the couple.
During the trial, the court heard that her husband’s “skull was basically broken by almost two parts.”
Sigmon stole David Larke’s gun and waited for his ex-girlfriend to come home.
Upon arrival, Babar was taken into a car by muzzle. The woman managed to jump out of the vehicle and escape the scene, according to the documents, escaped her direction. Sigmon then managed to escape from the country.
Sigmon later testified that he told the officer that he planned to kill Baba and himself.
A hunter was fired and he was eventually arrested at a campground in Gatlinburg, Tennessee after 11 days of running. He was then extradited to South Carolina.
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An undated photo in the Execution Room (AP) of the Broad River Correctional Institution
After his arrest, Sigmon was indicted by a South Carolina grand jury on two counts of murder and first-degree burglary, among other crimes.
Eventually, he was tried in July 2002, and prosecutors sought death penalty for the “most terrible death of Lakes.”
They provided evidence that the victim could be up to five minutes after attack, bleeding and coughing.
Sigmon’s defense team testified about his mental state and extensive drug use history, his “recurrent major depression” or his “chemical dependence disease,” court documents show.
The jury unanimously found him guilty of two counts of murder, and he was sentenced to two death sentences for burglary and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Sigmon was placed on death row on July 20, 2002.
