COLUMBIA, S.C. _ Two South Carolina inmates serving life sentences for murder each were given additional life sentences this week for the mass killings of four fellow inmates in 2017.
In two brief, unpublicized hearings Thursday afternoon at the Richland County courthouse, Circuit Judge De'Andrea Benjamin gave Denver Simmons, 38, and Jacob Philip, 28, four life sentences each for the brutal killings of four other inmates.
Simmons pleaded guilty to four killings; Philip pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the killings.
Shortly after the April 2017 killings, Simmons and Philip confessed to killing inmates Jimmy Ham, 56; Jason Kelley, 35; John King, 52; and William Scruggs, 44, according to warrants in the case.
The sentences were confirmed by the South Carolina Department of Corrections and court records.
Fifth Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson, who was at the hearing, was not immediately available for comment Friday. The case potentially could have been eligible for the death penalty since it involved multiple killings.
Assistant Solicitor Dan Goldberg, who spoke for the prosecution, told the judge that families of the four murdered inmates did not want prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Also, Goldberg said at the hearing, the state of South Carolina is unable to obtain chemicals needed for lethal injection, according to a lawyer in the courtroom.
Family members of the four victims were on hand, but they made no statement.
No members of the news media were notified of the hearings or their outcome, either before or after the sessions.
Also present in the courtroom were Department of Corrections director Bryan Stirling and State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel. They did not speak.
Philip participated in the hearing via Skype. Simmons, escorted by four corrections officers, was manacled and foot and on a leash.
Warrants issued by SLED, which investigated the killings at Stirling's request, said that Simmons and Philip had lured the four other inmates into a cell and strangled them one at a time with an electrical cord and a broomstick tourniquet.
At the time, the multiple murders inside a supposedly high security prison received national publicity.
Richland County Coroner Gary Watts told reporters he had never heard of four murders taking place inside a state prison at one time.
Kirkland Correctional Institution, where the killings took place, is one of the state's high-security facilities. It is part of the Broad River Complex off Broad River Road, about a 10-minute drive from the popular Harbison shopping area.
Fifth Circuit Public Defender Fielding Pringle represented Philip. Midlands attorney Jack Duncan represented Simmons.
