SC man sentenced to life in prison for 1976 cold case murder of Chester woman
Editors note: An earlier online version of this article gave the incorrect first name of the defendant. Charles Ugvine Coleman pleaded guilty in court Tuesday morning.
A South Carolina man charged in 2020 with the 1976 murder of a Chester woman has been sentenced to life in prison.
But Charles Ugvine Coleman will have the possibility of parole in less than nine years in the cold case that went unsolved for more than 45 years.
Coleman, 66, of Union, pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to murder in the March 1976 death of Elizabeth Ann Howell Wilson, according to prosecutors and defense lawyers. Coleman pleaded guilty before his trial started at the Fairfield County Courthouse.
Coleman pleaded guilty under an Alford plea, where a defendant does not admit guilt but accepts the punishment of a guilty plea because it is likely he would be convicted, said Randy Newman, Sixth Circuit Solicitor.
A sexual assault charge against Coleman was dismissed as part of the negotiated plea, Coleman’s lawyer, Sixth Circuit Public Defender William Frick, said.
Because the crime happened in 1976, the court had to apply laws that were in place at the time of the crime, said Newman and Frick. South Carolina law in 1976 required that a person convicted of murder would have become parole eligible after 10 years in prison, the lawyers said.
Coleman received credit for 16 months jail time since his arrest and could be parole eligible in under nine years, Frick said.
Wilson, 45, was found beaten to death, sexually assaulted and strangled in Fairfield County just south of the Chester County line in March 1976 after she left her shift at a Chester textile plant, State Law Enforcement Division agents and prosecutors said.
Coleman has been jailed since his arrest on charges of murder and rape in October 2020. He was charged after DNA from a September 2020 conviction matched DNA from the crime scene in 1976.
Coleman has convictions dating back to 1975, according to SLED and court records. In 1977 Coleman was sentenced to 12 years in prison for Chester County convictions of assault and battery with intent to kill, larceny, and other charges, records show.
This story was originally published February 15, 2022 at 11:50 AM.
