Judge orders new trial for Chester Co. man convicted of killing grandparents

Christopher Pittman's defense attorneys failed to pursue a plea deal

By Andrew Dys and Kimberly Dick - adys@heraldonline.com

CHESTER --

Christopher Pittman - convicted of killing his grandparents in 2001 when he was 12 - should get a new trial because defense attorneys failed to pursue a plea deal during his 2005 trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The trial, held in Charleston, drew nationwide attention because Pittman was tried as an adult when he was 15, and because his lawyers claimed the prescription antidepressant Zoloft altered his behavior.

Pittman burned down his grandparents' rural Chester County home in an attempt to cover up the shotgun slayings, then fled in the family truck before he was found by hunters in nearby Cherokee County.

FILE. Christopher Pittman, center

Pittman, now 21, has been in prison since his arrest soon after the bodies of Joe and Joy Pittman were discovered.

Prosecutors didn't buy what came to be known as the Zoloft defense, maintaining that Pittman killed his grandparents after he was disciplined. A jury agreed, and Pittman was sentenced to two concurrent 30-year prison terms - the shortest sentence for double murder allowed under the law.

"I am delighted that, for whatever reason, Chris Pittman will have another chance at justice," Andy Vickery, Pittman's lead defense attorney in the 2005 trial, said in a statement. He had no further comment.

The state Attorney General's office plans to appeal the ruling of Circuit Court Judge Roger Young of Charleston.

"This office has 30 days to appeal the court's finding; we plan to do so," said Mark Plowden, a spokesman for the attorney general's office. "We are working on the language of that appeal immediately."

Tuesday's ruling came after a three-day civil trial last summer. Pittman filed a civil lawsuit claiming his lawyers mishandled the case. His appeals to the state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court had failed.

Young wrote that Pittman's right to effective counsel was violated when the defense team made several errors in the case, including not pursuing a potential plea deal, not explaining to Pittman that a plea deal could have meant a shorter sentence, and not telling Pittman's court-appointed guardian ad litem of a potential plea deal.

The guardian, attorney Milton Hamilton of Chester, testified last summer that he would have advised Pittman to take a plea deal of voluntary manslaughter if it had been offered, according to Tuesday's court order.

Hamilton declined to comment on the order Tuesday but confirmed that was his testimony last year.

"By failing to inform Hamilton of the potential plea, Vickery prevented him from fulfilling a role as someone who had no other interest other than Pittman's at heart," Young wrote.

Seth Farber of New York, who represented Pittman in the civil case, said he will continue to represent him.

"We are very pleased for Christopher," he said.

Delnora Duprey, Pittman's maternal grandmother, who lives in Florida, said Tuesday evening she has not had a chance to talk to Pittman about the ruling and is not even certain that he knew yet of the order granting him a new trial.

Duprey and her husband, Wilfred, both said they had prayed for the outcome.

"We are very pleased and thankful for the decision," she said.

The Rev. Chris Snelgrove of Spartanburg, who was pastor at the Chester church Pittman's family attended, called the ruling "fantastic."

Snelgrove said he talks with Pittman's family periodically and plans to meet with Pittman in prison to discuss the future. Although the antidepressant defense did not work in court, Snelgrove said, he still believes the drugs played a role in causing Pittman to kill his grandparents.

"This was a terrible event for the family and the community, and I understand the community still deals with it and the need for justice," Snelgrove said. "But Chris is a human being who can be redeemed."

According to Young's ruling, the trial judge in 2005 brought up a potential plea in a meeting with attorneys outside the courtroom, but prosecutors never extended a formal offer.

Like the guardian, Snelgrove said, he was not aware of the potential for a plea deal during the trial, but he would have been grateful if that offer had been extended.