S.C. bill aims to help get justice for victims of deadly child abuse
COLUMBIA, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - South Carolina’s solicitors are calling for a change that would help them put perpetrators of deadly child abuse behind bars.
South Carolina is one of a few states that designates homicide by child abuse as its own crime. However, the law currently only applies to situations where the victim is under 11 years old.
Legislators have introduced three nearly identical bills in the statehouse looking to amend the law by raising the age limit to under 18 years old: House Bills 4662 and 3023, as well as Senate Bill 839.
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“We don’t want to do these cases,” said Seventh Circuit Solicitor Barry Barnette. “Believe me, I don’t want to see any of these cases, but unfortunately, the last couple years we’ve seen an uptick in these.”
Barnette has prosecuted many homicide by child abuse cases during his more than 20 years in office. He keeps track of them in a PowerPoint presentation called “The Nightmares.”
“These are cases that are totally preventable. I mean, they should never happen and obviously when somebody does something this horrific, they need to be held responsible for it,” Barnette said.
The current law works for children like 3-year-old Victoria Rose Smith, who was killed by her foster mother Ariel Robinson in January 2021. A jury found Robinson guilty in May 2022 and the judge sentenced her to life in prison for the crime of homicide by child abuse.
It also works for kids like 1-year-old William Leopard, who was killed by his mother’s boyfriend Michael Burrell in April 2019. Burrell pleaded guilty to homicide by child abuse and was sentenced to 20 years.
However, it doesn’t work for teens like Cristina Pangalangan: a 13-year-old girl from Colleton County with cerebral palsy, which rendered her unable to speak or move. Cristina’s mother, Rita Pangalangan, left her in a hot car for six hours while high on methamphetamine in 2019. The 13-year-old died from hyperthermia.
Because Cristina was older than 11, the Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone had the more difficult task of convincing a jury the mother committed murder instead of homicide by child abuse.
“Murder you have to prove malice, that they intended to do this,” Barnette said.
In court last September, Rita told the judge, “It was not murder. It was not intentional.”
The jury still found Rita guilty, but Barnette said they can’t rely on that happening at every trial.
“The fear is you’re going to get a case the one time the jury does not see it as murder,” Barnette said.
Raising the age would also make the law more consistent, Barnette said. For example, chapter seven of The Children’s Code defines a child as “a person under the age of 18.”
“I keep saying protect them,” Barnette said. “It’s not really protecting them, but it’s making the person who did this to them be held able for it.”
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