Jury sentences Brandon Council to death for deadly CresCom Bank robbery
FLORENCE, S.C. (WMBF) – The same jury that found Brandon Council guilty of murdering two bank employees in Conway has now sentenced him to death for his crime.
Jurors returned with that sentence Thursday morning after hearing additional testimony from witnesses over several days. Last week, Council was convicted of killing Donna Major and Katie Skeen during the 2017 robbery at the CresCom Bank.
“It was an event that certainly ripped the fabric of our city because we’re very peaceful,” Conway Police Chief Dale Long said.
The sentence came after hours of deliberations that were spread across two days starting Wednesday. The jurors deliberated for about four hours before being sent home. They returned Thursday morning and spent roughly two more hours discussing the case before coming to their decision.
Jurors believed the evidence that Council intentionally killed two innocent women outweighed his traumatic childhood.
“These were intentional and senseless murders,” prosecutor Nathan Williams said.
“Everybody has some things in their past that they want to be considered and at the end of the day I believe this jury focused on what happened on August 21st,” prosecutor Everett McMillian said.
The victims’ families said Council’s sentence won’t bring back their loved ones, but at least the man that took them away will suffer the same fate.
“The events that happened on that day as you see as evidenced in court today is nothing that’s going to hold us back and we see the final verdict is that good have overcome evil,” Long said.
After the sentence, one of Major’s daughter told Council how difficult the past three weeks have been for her family. Skeen’s mother told Council she will never forgive him, but that she doesn’t hate him.
Overall, both prosecutors and the victims’ families believe the death penalty is the just sentence for the two women.
As of Oct. 3, there are 38 people currently on death row in South Carolina who were convicted on state charges. Council was convicted on federal charges. There are currently more than 60 federal inmates on death row.
The last person put to death in S.C. was Jeffrey Motts in May 2011 for the death of his cellmate.
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