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SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — The Latest in the prosecution of a man charged in the deaths of seven people in South Carolina (all times local):
1:25 p.m.
A South Carolina prosecutor says he didn't seek the death penalty against a man who admitted killing seven people because he couldn't guarantee to the relatives of the victims that the killer would be executed.
Solicitor Barry Barnette said Friday that lawmakers need to figure out a way to restart the death penalty. South Carolina ran out of execution drugs and hasn't been able to obtain any more. The last execution in the state happened in 2011.
Todd Kohlhepp pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder and other charges. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole as part of a plea deal. Under the plea, he agreed to never appeal the sentence.
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10:10 a.m.
A man who admitted killing seven people over nearly 13 years in South Carolina while running a successful real estate business has pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder and a number of other charges.
Todd Kohlhepp has accepted a plea deal that will send him to prison for life without parole. Prosecutors could have sought the death penalty against Kohlhepp, who was arrested in November after investigators rescued a woman chained inside a container on his property for more than two months.
Kohlhepp admitted killing four people at a motorcycle shop in 2003 after becoming enraged by something the shop owner said. He also killed a husband and wife doing work on his Spartanburg County property in 2015 and the boyfriend of the woman chained in the container.
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A man charged with killing seven people over a 13-year period in South Carolina is heading to court.
Prosecutors told the victims' families to be in court in Spartanburg County on Friday morning but did not say what the hearing involving Todd Kohlhepp would be about.
Authorities say Kohlhepp was arrested in November after investigators checking on a cellphone ping in a missing couple case found a woman chained inside a shipping container on Kohlhepp's property.
Deputies say the woman told them Kohlhepp killed her boyfriend two months before. Authorities sat Kohlhepp also killed a couple he hired to do work on his property in 2015 and four workers at a motorcycle shop in 2003.
The 44-year-old built a successful real estate business in South Carolina.
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