Suspect to fight for life

Prosecutor seeking death penalty for man charged with killing three social workers

Web posted October 15, 1998

By Margaret N. O'Shea
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN -- The man accused of killing three social workers in a rampage at their North Augusta office two years ago will go on trial for his own life in January.

Circuit Judge Marc H. Westbrook has ordered a jury pool of 300 people drawn for the Jan. 25 trial of David Mark Hill, 38, at the Aiken County Courthouse.

Solicitor Barbara Morgan is seeking the death penalty in the case, which marked the only time in South Carolina that social workers were killed in the line of duty.

The prosecution contends that Mr. Hill -- distraught because the South Carolina Department of Social Services had taken away his children while child endangerment claims were pending -- stormed into the agency's office looking for the worker assigned to the case. He is charged with shooting that worker and two others in the head.

The dead were James Riddle, 52, of North Augusta; Josie H. Curry, 33, of North Augusta; and Michael Gregory, 30, of Belvedere.

Mr. Riddle's widow has filed a lawsuit contending that Mr. Hill went first to the agency's Aiken office, where someone told him where Mr. Riddle worked, but never warned the North Augusta office that an angry parent was on the way. A witness to the shooting also has sued.

Mr. Hill was arrested the morning after the shootings. He was found lying across railroad tracks near the 13th Street bridge with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in his mouth.

The formal charges against Mr. Hill are three counts of murder, three counts of possessing a firearm during commission of a violent crime, assault with intent to kill, kidnapping, first-degree burglary and illegally carrying a pistol.

Margaret N. O'Shea can be reached at (803) 279-6895 or scbureau@augustachronicle.com.