Ex-convict faces murder charges in cousin's death

AIKEN --- The Aiken County Sheriff's Office filed a murder charge Tuesday against an Aiken man accused of killing his cousin.

Keith Alan Fitzgerald, 51, is in jail in Anderson County, and investigators say they expect to bring him back to Aiken County this week and charge him with arson, grand larceny and murder in the death of 61-year-old George Woltz Jr.

The two men were distant cousins and roommates, according to Lt. Troy Elwell.

Firefighters found Mr. Woltz's body Saturday night after a fire at his home at 845 Westover St. The arrest warrant says Mr. Fitzgerald and others killed Mr. Woltz by "beating and torturing him."

According to the Aiken County coroner, an autopsy revealed that he died of asphyxiation.

Mr. Fitzgerald was arrested Sunday morning at an apartment complex in Anderson. He was sitting in a white Mercedes that had been reported stolen from a residence on Williamsburg Street in Aiken on Saturday afternoon.

Witnesses told investigators they saw Mr. Fitzgerald and three other men leaving the victim's home in a white Mercedes shortly before the fire started. Lt. Elwell said the three other men have not been found.

In 1990, a judge in New York sentenced Mr. Fitzgerald to 25 years in prison for torching a department store in Latham, N.Y., in 1989, and 15 years for setting a fire at an industrial storage shed in 1987, according to an article in the Albany Times-Union.

According to the New York Department of Correction Services, Mr. Fitzgerald was released from prison in 2006 on supervised parole.

Reach Michelle Guffey at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or michelle.guffey@augustachronicle.com.