Co-defendant in homicide sentenced to 20 years

A young man who took part in a burglary near Seneca that turned into homicide has been ordered to prison for 20 years.  This was sentencing day in the Oconee General Sessions Court for Donte Robert Bacon who had previously pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping, and other charges.  A former Washington state resident, Scott Johnston, was shot dead in January 2014 in the Ames Street, Utica home he shared with Jody Corley, a Clemson doctoral student.  Corley was a victim of the burglary and kidnapping and later died when, according to relatives, she committed suicide in Virginia.  Three months ago Bacon’s co-defendant, James William Toward, the triggerman in Johnston’s death, was sent to prison for 48 years.  Jody Corley’s stepfather, John Staley, said he had no pity for Bacon because he was part of an incident that, as he explained to the judge, that has nearly ruined the lives of him and his wife who, he says, can no longer stand to live in their Virginia home because that is where Corley took her life.  Bacon is 18 years old.  At the time he was 16 and described by his lawyer as vulnerable to and influenced by his older co-defendant.  A psychiatrist for the defense said her examination of Bacon led her to diagnose him with an autistic disorder and suffering from a front lobe impairment.  She said she worries that he will be subject to abuse within regular prison population. Public Defender Hervery Young appealed for a 15-year sentence.  But Judge Scott Sprouse, explaining his sentence, said he was balancing Bacon’s troubled background with his decision to take part in a burglary about which he had a choice to participate or not.  The public defender said the purpose of the burglary was to steal guitars and sell them, and he blamed Toward for persuading Bacon to commit the crime.