Todd Christopher Kohlhepp won’t be brokering any more real estate transactions in South Carolina. He pleaded guilty on Friday to killing seven people, over 13 years, to avoid the death penalty, which would have been problematic South Carolina. The state ran out of the drugs used for lethal executions and there have been no executions in the state for the past six years. The death penalty would have been in name only for Kohlhepp if convicted at trial and if sentenced to death.
Woman's rescue led to serial killer's arrest and admissions
While operating a successful real estate business, Kohlhepp, 46, said he murdered seven people.
Seven months ago, he was arrested when law enforcement heard screams and rescued a woman, Kala Brown, who was chained inside a shipping container for more than two months on the killer’s rural property in Spartanburg County. Almost on a daily basis, he raped her. Kohlhepp had shot and killed Brown’s boyfriend, 32-year-old Charles David Carver. He was the last of Kohlhepp’s victims.
The investigators were on his property checking for Johnny Joe Coxie, age 29, and his wife, Megan Leigh McCraw-Coxie, age 26. The couple went missing in December 2015 after being hired to work on Kohlhepp’s property. Their bodies were found after he was arrested.
In 2003, after the manager of Superbike Motorsports motorcycle store angered Kohlhepp by refusing to take back a motorcycle, he murdered four workers at the Chesnee, SC, shop.
He killed the owner, Scott Ponder, age 30. He also murdered Beverly Guy, age 52, who worked for her son, Ponder, as a bookkeeper. In addition, Kohlhepp killed service manager Brian Lucas, age 30, and mechanic Chris Sherbert, age 26.
Killer's appetite for violence started at young age
The killer’s penchant for violence was pronounced in 1986.
According to court records in Arizona, he was 15-years-old when he used his father’s handgun and forced a 14-year-old neighbor to go to his house. He tied her hands and raped her. A probation officer asked him about the crime. The victim only wanted friendship with him, yet had a crush on his friend, he stated. That upset him so he kidnapped, bound her, and raped her.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
After Kohlhepp was released from prison, he moved to South Carolina, where he had to register as a sex offender. He obtained a real estate license by lying about his felony conviction. Prior to starting his own business, he worked as a real estate broker. According to his friends and co-workers, he spent hours at work watching porn videos.
The serial killer pleaded guilty to a sum of 14 charges on Friday, including the seven murders he admitted, along with charges of sexual assault and kidnapping.
The judge, Derham Cole, told the killer that the term life means until he dies in prison. Kohlhepp has seven consecutive life sentences.
Kala Brown, the only surviving victim of Kohlhepp will receive a $25,000 reward. Her rescue helped solve the four 2003 murders at Superbike Motorsports.
