Bixby’s brother testifies

Jury could decide his fate today

February 21, 2007

By MIKE ROSIER
Index-Journal staff writer

ABBEVILLE — A legion of differing opinions was once all that separated Steven Vernon Bixby and older brother Daniel Bixby.
There are far more serious factors intervening these days.
They were born within 11 months of each other, raised under the same roof by their parents — Rita and Arthur Bixby — and taught and instructed in the same beliefs.
Since those formative years, however, the two men have lived vastly different lives — lives that have grown worlds apart.
The younger brother is now a man convicted of murdering two law officers — Constable Donnie Ouzts and Sgt. Danny Wilson — preceding a 14-hour standoff with law enforcement officials on Dec. 8, 2003, at the Bixby home in Abbeville — then at 4 Union Church Road.
On Tuesday, Daniel Bixby — now a resident of Bath, N.H. — took the stand during the sentencing phase of his brother’s double-murder trial, a phase in which jurors will recommend one of two sentences for his younger brother Steven — life imprisonment or death.
Daniel Bixby was the second witness called by the prosecution.
He said he and his younger sibling were instructed at home by mother Rita Bixby following the seventh grade.
They were taught all manner of subjects – but were especially schooled in two of the nation’s founding documents: the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
A young Steven gravitated toward his mother’s rhetoric on property rights and the courtroom, where she litigated zoning cases for friends.
Daniel Bixby mostly found himself in his father’s shop.
When the two boys were together an argument often wasn’t far away.
“We were always at difference with each other,” said Daniel Bixby, a part-time carpenter and captain of the Bath Volunteer Fire Department in Bath, New Hampshire, said. “We spent a lot of time arguing and fighting.”
So much so that when the two young men would aid their father, either on a project at home or in a house they were working in, Arthur Bixby placed the boys at opposite ends of the work site.
Though he may have had his share of disagreements with the younger Steven through their years, it still took a court-ordered subpoena to have Daniel Bixby to testify in a matter that could send his only biological sibling to death – either by lethal injection or the electric chair.
“It wasn’t that way at all,” he said. “I did try to fight the subpoena. I went to Grafton (the county seat) and tried to fight it, but the judge informed me that anything I had to say was irrelevant and that I was going.”
With that issue decided, only the truth remained.
“I just wanted to make sure that the truth be known from both sides, as far as (Steven’s) life growing up,” Daniel Bixby said after offering his testimony to the jury. “Everybody has a choice, and in the end your final outcome is what you make it. Your life is what you make of it. It was Steven’s choice.”

DURING HIS MORE THAN two hours of taxing personal testimony, Daniel Bixby described what life was like in the Bixby household – especially after he and Steven were pulled out of public school in the seventh grade following an altercation with an overaggressive math teacher who had assaulted him.
After the incident, their mother served as their instructor. And what Rita Bixby represented was law in the home.
“You weren’t allowed to disagree with my mother,” Daniel Bixby said. “If you did you kept it under your tongue. She was very dead set against the way that the country was being run. She thought that things should go back to the way that they were in the 1700s and 1800s.”
Rita Bixby’s priorities in the education of her sons were “life, liberty and property” – just not necessarily in that particular order.
Property and life were often interchangeable.
“Life, liberty and property,” Daniel Bixby said. “It shall not be infringed. After a fashion our whole lives were based on that. Sometimes property outweighed life for her. To her, without property you were nothing.”
Many of his brother’s burgeoning qualities Daniel Bixby had seen before.
“(Steven) is very hot-tempered, very hot-tempered,” he said. “We would fight to the point that he would be cooling off and I would just be getting fired up. He was very antagonistic, very belligerent, loud and boisterous. It was the same with him as my mother – his way or the highway.”
By the time he reached his 18th birthday, Daniel Bixby had seen (and heard) enough – it was time to go and seek his own path.
“I had just had enough,” he said. “She’s very set in her ways. She was like a rabid pit bull at times, and once her jaws were locked that was it. There was always something (some sort of legal or property dispute) with her, it drove me nuts. It was her way or the highway. I chose the highway.”
As did his five half-siblings (five of Rita’s children from a prior marriage), all of whom left the Bixby home shortly following their 18th birthdays.
“Dale left, joining the Marines and went to Vietnam,” Daniel Bixby said. “He said it was safer there than having to face my mother’s wrath.”
Arthur Bixby was hardly immune.
The man Daniel Bixby still calls “his hero” – while adding that he’s not proud of what his father participated in on Dec. 8, 2003 – would patiently endure hours and hours of his wife’s ravings, all while quietly rocking in his rocking chair.
Daniel Bixby was asked if he ever inquired with his father about leaving.
“My father was a quiet man,” he said. “I begged him to leave her and to get the hell out of there, but he always said no, saying ‘I’m too (expletive) old, what am I going to do (about it) now.’”
Daniel Bixby said on the stand that his father – now being held in a Laurens facility following his role in the Dec. 8 shootings and a lengthy recovery from a gunshot wound he sustained in the firefight – is suffering from full-blown Alzheimer’s. He says Arthur Bixby may have already had the disease even before the incident now three years distant.
“We suspected it before any of this (on Dec. 8) occurred,” Daniel Bixby said. “I assume the trauma of the gunshot wound aided in its onset.”

THE PROSECUTION – IN its case for the death penalty for Steven Bixby – displayed for the jury several autopsy photos of Donnie Ouzts and Danny Wilson, and a video clip from Wilson’s emotional funeral.
Eighth Circuit Solicitor Jerry Peace also called to the stand a number of witnesses – including Donnie Ouzts’ widow, Jean; Donnie’s son, Chris; Danny Wilson’s now 19-year-old daughter, Destiny; Wilson’s sister Marilyn Lee; Abbeville Chief Magistrate Tommy Ferguson and Abbeville Sheriff Charles Goodwin – who testified as to the standing of the two men and their place in the two families.
Following the final witnesses for the prosecution (and a visible stir within the gallery) Rita Bixby again took the stand in her youngest son’s defense. Following are several of her quotes:
* “They aren’t making any more land. Why should anyone come and tell someone what they should do on their property?”
* “It’s a God-given right we have to protect our property. (Rights to protect property) are right there in the Bible ... by whatever means necessary. It doesn’t say who (in the bible), it means everybody, even public servants.”
* “(Daniel, her son) didn’t have the guts to stand up for himself and Steven did.”
* “Of course” Steven carried weapons when hunting. (Steven) was a good shot.”
* “I don’t believe in being controlled by a group. I figured the Constitution doesn’t need to be revised. It’s not dead.”
“He chose my mother’s way,” Daniel Bixby said.
During Tuesday’s testimony, the jury was shown pictures of several different homes the Bixby family occupied through the years they spent in New Hampshire. in one photograph – showing the Bixby family home in Warren, N.H., the last home in which Daniel and Steven Bixby lived under the same roof – there are orange cones clearly visible lining the side of the street near the Bixby’s former home.
They provide an ironic twist to the complex Bixby tale.
The cones mark the initial phase of a highway-widening project in Warren, one that was completed just this past fall. The defense is expected to call its remaining witnesses today.
If that happens, the jury also could forward its sentence recommendation today to Tenth Circuit Court Judge Alexander Macaulay as well, marking an end of the trial proceedings.

Lawman celebrates brotherhood of honor

February 21, 2007

By MIKE ROSIER
Index-Journal staff writer

Haverhill Police Chief Jeff Williams flew 1,500 miles on Tuesday to say goodbye to two men he never met.
In flying to South Carolina from his native New Hampshire, he accomplished two missions: one for the public good, and the other his own.
The first was personal, nearly intimately so.
Williams visited the gravesites of two of his fellow law officers and fallen brothers-in-arms — Constable Donnie Ouzts and Sgt. Danny Wilson.
The search for Donnie’s grave takes some time.
Just off Highway 72 outside of Abbeville, Williams spends several moments looking for Donnie’s headstone. The passing clouds threaten the private moment, but the rain does not fall — perhaps out of respect.
He finds the name: Ouzts.
This is what he came for.
Williams spends several quiet moments kneeling next to Donnie’s grave. The words said – though unheard – were for Williams and Ouzts alone.
Moments later, in the car on the drive to Calhoun Falls to visit the grave site of Danny Wilson, Williams attempts to explain the depth of his feelings.
“It’s a very personal thing for me,” he says. “There’s a brotherhood. It’s something very deep and personal. It’s very difficult to explain.”
Still he tries to explain.
“We all have the same desire to serve our communities,” he said.
Haverhill is a rural community of around 4,600 souls, one in which the residents continue to struggle to adapt to a changing economy. They are people who keep most personal things very private.
In other words, Haverhill might not be all that different from Abbeville.
The car arrives in Calhoun Falls, and in a small cemetery behind a typical Southern church, the search begins for Danny Wilson’s grave.
The site is found within a few steps.
Williams circles the headstone that will forever bear the smiling face of Sgt. Danny Wilson. He kneels, and the two men share a bit of time.
There are restless leaves and careless branches that have dared to fall on the hallowed ground upon which he is standing. Williams quickly sweeps the grave clean of all interfering objects – everything that’s not supposed to be there is rendered in its proper place – until it is clean once again.
“Senseless,” Williams says. “All of this is just so senseless.”
But so quickly, it’s time to go.
After giving testimony to his dealings with Steven Vernon Bixby in Tuesday’s sentencing phase – his second mission – Williams will fly home.
He may never see South Carolina again.
But though more than 1,000 miles of the Eastern Seaboard may separate the three men physically once more, the spirit they share knows no border or obstacle.
The uniforms are different.
The call to duty and the bond of their brotherhood never has been.

Principal in scandal requests hearing

February 21, 2007

By BOBBY HARRELL
Index-Journal staff writer

WARE SHOALS — The suspended principal of Ware Shoals High School, charged last month after being linked to an alcohol-fueled sex scandal involving a cheerleading coach, has asked for a hearing before the school board, her attorney said Tuesday.
Billy J. Garrett Jr., the Greenwood attorney representing Principal Jane Blackwell, said Blackwell wants to tell the board her side of the story.
He also said the Ware Shoals school district’s investigation hasn’t found any evidence of charges independent of the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Office.
Garrett said Blackwell even helped the sheriff’s office by telling cheerleaders at a meeting after the scandal broke to cooperate with law enforcement, something two adults allegedly claimed to have witnessed.
“I don’t know how much more she could do for them than she did,” Garrett said.
He said the sheriff’s office has been slow in getting information he needs to convince the board to let Blackwell continue her job at Ware Shoals High School.
Garrett said his goal is to have her back at her desk in the school the day after the hearing, which hasn’t been scheduled yet.
Bruce Davis, the attorney representing the Ware Shoals school district, was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
Board chairman Ed Farr declined to comment, while superintendent Fay Sprouse said board members would do the task set before them at the hearing.
Blackwell was charged Jan. 22 by the sheriff’s office with obstruction of justice. She’s accused of withholding information from investigators following the arrest of cheerleading coach Jill Moore.
Moore, who resigned in the wake of the scandal that garnered national media attention, was charged with transferring alcohol to a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Investigators searched Blackwell’s office when they suspected Blackwell knew more about the accusations against Moore than she was telling authorities. During the search, deputies seized two computers, calendars, notebooks and other assorted documents.
Both women have denied any wrongdoing.
Moore is also accused of placing two girls in an “incredibly inappropriate situation” in regard to a sexual relationship Moore was having with National Guardsman Thomas Fletcher and helping facilitate a sexual relationship between one of the cheerleaders and Guardsman Jeremy Pileggi.
Fletcher and Pileggi were not charged by authorities — the age of sexual consent in South Carolina is 16 — but were demoted and fined by the National Guard two weeks ago.
Garrett said Blackwell also has requested a speedy trial by jury in her criminal case.

Obituaries

William ‘Bill’ Boyd

LAURENS — William Henry Boyd, 77, of LaForrest Community Care, husband of Sarah Ramey Boyd, passed away Saturday, Feb. 17, 2007 at Laurens County Hospital. Born in Abbeville, he was the son of the late Marshall Boyd and Orlean Plummer Dillard. He was a member of Macedonia Baptist Church, a former Trustee and member of the senior choir. He served in the U.S. Army and was a former employee of Nantex and Monsanto.
He is survived by, in addition to his wife of Dayton, OH, a son, William Eric Boyd of Saluda; a daughter, Naomi Boyd (John, III) Jones of Dayton, OH; a stepdaughter, Roberta Ramey of Greenwood; a sister, Ruth Ellen Marine of Greenwood; four grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held 2 p.m. Thursday at Macedonia Baptist Church, with Rev. Dr. Willie S. Harrison officiating. Burial will be in Evening Star. Flower bearers will be Trustees’ wives; pallbearers will be Deacons and Trustees; and honorary escorts, LaForrest Community Care. The body will be placed in the church at 1 p.m.
The family is at the home of his sister, Ruth Ellen Marine, 1522 Parkway Court, Hillcrest Apt. D-8, Greenwood.
Percival-Tompkins Funeral Home is assisting the family.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at pertompfh1@earthlink.net.

Joel Deery

ORANGEBURG — Samuel Joel Deery, III, 70, formerly of Orangeburg, died Monday, Feb. 19, 2007 at Regional Hospice Home, Spartanburg, following an extended illness.
Born in Mullins, he was the son of the late Ellene Chandler and Samuel Joel Deery, Jr. He was a 1954 graduate of Estill High School, received his BA degree in Industrial Psychology from Furman University and his Hospital Administrators Management Degree from Duke University. He began his career with the SC Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, where he was named “South Carolina Rehabilitation Counselor of the Year” and in 1964, he joined the administrative staff of Orangeburg Regional Hospital (now The Regional Medical Center) where he developed its first formal Personnel Department and ultimately served as an Assistant Administrator for a number of years. From 1983-1991, he served as a regional manager for Gardner & White of Columbia.
Joel was a long time member of St. Andrews United Methodist Church in Orangeburg, where he served in a number of capacities including Administrative Board, chairman of the Evangelism and Stewardship Boards, organized and led a roundtable Adult Sunday School Class and participated as a lay speaker. Since 1995, he attended First Southern Methodist Church. He was instrumental in the development of the Community Christian Health and Wellness Fitness Program in Orangeburg.
Following the death of his son, Kenneth Chandler Deery, in 1987, Joel dedicated his life to helping others with similar losses to work through their grief.
Survivors include a daughter, Elizabeth “Betsy” Deery McMillan and her husband, Stanford, of Spartanburg; a son, Samuel Joel Deery, IV and his wife, Libba, of Greenwood; a sister, Ellen Deery Freeman and her husband, “Buddy” of North; three grandchildren, Samuel Joel Deery, V, Chandler Liddell McMillan and Garrison Vermont McMillan.
A service to celebrate Joel’s life will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, at First Southern Methodist Church, Orangeburg, with the Rev. Marvin Clarke officiating. Burial will follow in Salem Baptist Church Cemetery, North.
The family will receive friends at the church on Saturday from 1-2 p.m.
Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, PO Box 658, Greenwood, SC 29648; Regional Hospice Home, c/o The SRHS Foundation, 101 East Wood Street, Spartanburg, SC 29303 or to First Southern Methodist Church, 2690 North Road, Orangeburg, SC 29118.
Harley Funeral Home and Crematory of Greenwood is in charge of arrangements.
Online condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.harleyfuneralhome.com.

Ray C. Heldreth

Ray C. Heldreth, 94, of Wesley Commons, husband of Clara Davis Havu Heldreth, former resident of Aiken, died Monday, Feb. 19, 2007 at the Hospice House, Greenwood.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at Asbury Hall, Wesley Commons, with the Rev. Carol Peppers-Wray officiating.
Memorials may be made to HospiceCare of the Piedmont, 408 W. Alexander Avenue, Greenwood, SC 29646 or to Wesley Commons, 1110 Marshall Road, Greenwood, SC 29646.
Arrangements by Harley Funeral Home and Crematory of Greenwood.

Mattie Elizabeth (Syble) Johnson

CALHOUN FALLS — Mattie Elizabeth (Syble) Johnson, age 78, of 617 Barnwell Street, daughter of the late Claude and Ethel Moss, widow of James William “J.W.” Johnson, loving mother, grandmother and mother-in-law, went to be with the Lord, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007.
She was preceded in death by a son Larry Johnson, great-granddaughter Nicole Newton and sister, Mildred Bonds. Mrs. Johnson worked at Rocky River Mills many years and retired in 1986. She was a member of Calhoun Falls Church of God of Prophecy.
Survivors include her sons, Mikey Johnson and wife, Ruby of Calhoun Falls, Ricky Johnson and wife, Carolyn of Abbeville; granddaughter reared in the home, Chari Ridgeway and husband, Steve of Calhoun Falls; 8 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; and brothers, Cater Moss of Iva and Ray Moss of Hickory Tavern.
Funeral services will be Friday, Feb. 23, 2007 at Calhoun Falls Church of God of Prophecy (Faith Harvest Fellowship) at 2 p.m., with Rev. Michael Ford and Bill Scott officiating. Burial will follow at Forest Lawn Memory Gardens in Abbeville.
The family will receive friends Thursday evening from 7 to 9 p.m. at Calhoun Falls Funeral Home. The family will be at the home of son Mickey Johnson, 35 Fairway Road, Calhoun Falls.
Calhoun Falls Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Lady Flashes’ season wraps with loss

February 21, 2007

By RENALDO STOVER
Index-Journal sports writer

UNION — The Calhoun Falls Lady Blue Flashes and coach Risha Bomar saw their successful season come to an end Tuesday night at the hands of the Indian Land Lady Warriors, 70-43, in the third round of the Class A playoffs at Union High School.
The Lady Warriors (19-6) had little trouble with the Lady Blue Flashes pressure defense as they pulled away in the second half.
“We handled the press well. We had a couple of turnovers, but very few,” Lady Warriors coach Tamara Jacobus said. “Not many teams have been able to press us this year. Well, nobody, actually but I’m sure somebody can. They were quick.”
Jean Marie Harris led the Lady Warriors with 24 points, including 10 in the decisive third quarter. Merissa Witherspoon and Amanda Smith also reached double figures with 21 and 11 points, respectively, for the Lady Warriors.
Cherrelle Bridges led the Lady Blue Flashes (15-5) with 14 points while Ro’Shundray Postell chipped in with 13.
The Lady Warriors jumped out to a 4-0 lead prompting Bomar to use a timeout with 7 minutes, 30 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Following the timeout, Postell grabbed an offensive rebound and went back up to give the Lady Blue Flashes their first basket of the game with 7:14 remaining.
The Lady Blue Flashes trailed, 8-2, after Harris converted two free-throws for the Lady Warriors at the 6:09 mark of the first quarter.
Bridges ended the Lady Blue Flashes’ 2:58 scoring drought, but Witherspoon responded with back-to-back baskets, pushing the Lady Warriors’ lead to double digits (14-4) with less than three minutes remaining in the opening quarter.
Trailing by 10 points at the start of the second quarter, the Lady Blue Flashes finally got going offensively as they went on an 8-2 run to open the quarter.
The Lady Warriors responded with a 6-0 run to close out the quarter and led 31-20 at the half.
“We were great on the boards and shot the ball really well,” Jacobus said. “Once we beat the press, we were in transition mode like we had just gotten the rebound.”
Things quickly unraveled for the Lady Blue Flashes in the third quarter as the Lady Warriors lead expanded to 15 points (37-22) with 6:28 remaining, following a 3-pointer by Harris.
Harris scored 10 of the Lady Warriors first 13 points in the third quarter as the Lady Blue Flashes struggled on defense while rushing at the offensive end.
“Indian Land wanted it more. They played some very good basketball,” Bomar said. “It felt like there were times when my girls didn’t realize how important the game was. We had to deal with calls not going our way, but we did that all year long.”
Bridges’ lay-in with 2:46 remaining cut the Lady Warriors lead to 17 points, 47-30, but they remained in control, outscoring the Lady Blue Flashes 18-9 in the final period.
Although disappointed, Bomar said that there were a lot of positives in her first year as head coach.
“I feel good about my first year. Maybe I should have come out with coach of the year, but I use that for motivation,” Bomar said. “I accomplished a lot within myself but I also think I made a lot of these girls believe they could do it.”

Opinion

Anti-gang efforts need help from all directions

February 21, 2007

There has been enough evidence uncovered in South Carolina in recent times to eliminate any doubt that gangs are active and growing. That, as might and should be expected has motivated a state lawmaker to introduce an anti-gang law.
Senator Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, a former Columbia police officer who introduced the bill, obviously has concerns. All law-abiding citizens of the state should. Gang violence, coupled with drugs, is nothing to be complacent about. The combination is a surefire formula for trouble. In fact, reports are that out of 170 law enforcement agencies surveyed in South Carolina, more than half noted there was gang activity in their communities.

THE LARGEST CONCENTRATION of gang activity is in the Midlands and Pee Dee sections of the state, but it is more widespread.
If that doesn’t warrant a legislative review and remedial action nothing will.
There is a challenge of Knotts’ bill, though. It comes from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Greenwood attorney Rauch Wise, the ACLU’s general counsel, says “The general gang legislation in many cases simply makes it guilt by association. It is what I call feel-good legislation.”
Furthermore, Wise says there already are laws and other means to use.
On the other hand, Jeff Moore, executive director of the S. C. Sheriffs Association, said Knotts’ bill is needed to prevent gang activity in South Carolina from rising “to the level you see in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

“WE HAVE GOT TO GET OVER the idea that it’s just another crime with an individual or a couple of individuals involved,” he said. “It is an organization set up to perpetuate itself.”
Knotts has tried unsuccessfully since 1999 to get his anti-gang bill passed. This year, though, he is optimistic.
The ACLU challenge should be welcome. It could lead to a more practical and efficient law ..... that is if the ACLU has any concern about the gang situation. It would help if the ACLU didn’t just take a negative position and would work with lawmakers to fashion a legal solution to a problem that is getting worse instead of better.
It’s obvious something is needed, and that something is cooperation, not conflict.