Man sentenced to die for killing ex-girlfriend

GREENVILLE, S.C. - A 22-year-old Simpsonville man has been sentenced to death for killing his ex-girlfriend during a standoff with police at a grocery store here.

The six-man, six-woman deliberated almost seven hours over two days before sentencing Charles Williams on Saturday.

The same jury had convicted Williams earlier in the week of murder in the shooting death of 24-year-old Maranda Williams inside a Bi-Lo grocery story in September 2003. The two were not related.

During the guilt phase of the trial prosecutors showed a slow-motion video of Maranda Williams running in the store, with a man following behind her with a sawed-off shotgun at his shoulder. The woman was shot three times in the back.

Williams showed no emotion, but at least two jury members sobbed as the sentence was read Saturday. Jury members had told Circuit Court Judge J.C. Nicholson they were split between life in prison without parole and death just a few hours earlier.

The victim's parents, Gary and Pat Williams, said they were glad the ordeal was over, but said nothing can happen that will bring their daughter back. "There is no closure," Pat Williams said. "It will go on forever."