York County teen was 14 when he killed his mother. He pleaded guilty as an adult
A South Carolina juvenile who was 14 years old when he fatally shot his mother in 2022 has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty as an adult.
John Totherow, now 16, pleaded guilty Tuesday in General Sessions court in York, S.C., to voluntary manslaughter and possession of a weapon during a violent crime for the May 2022 shooting death of Alethea “Lisa” Puckett Totherow. He initially faced murder charges in juvenile court, according to the judge and public court records.
Lisa Totherow, 56, was John Totherow’s mother, 16th Circuit senior assistant solicitor Whitney Payne said in court Tuesday. In killing his mother, Totherow fired a gun 11 times, Payne said in court.
No motive for the shooting was given in court.
John Totherow was arrested soon after the shooting. He had been in juvenile detention ever since.
Totherow was sentenced to 339 months in prison, according to a written plea agreement that reduced the murder charge to manslaughter. That plea deal and sentence was approved Tuesday in court by South Carolina Circuit Judge Eugene Griffith.
A negotiated plea agreement
Totherow pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of manslaughter under a negotiated agreement. That agreement meant that Totherow would waive his case from juvenile court up to adult court and face adult sentencing, according to court documents and statements made in court Tuesday.
In South Carolina adult court, voluntary manslaughter carries up to 30 years in prison, and the weapon charge carries up to five years. Murder in adult court carries a sentence of 30 years to life.
In juvenile court, any sentence for any conviction would end at age 22.
The plea agreement keeps Totherow away from the public and takes into account that he was 14 years old at the time of the crime, Payne said.
“This sentence protects the public,” Payne said in court. “This is a very serious crime.”
The incident
Deputies responded to a 911 call on the afternoon of May 3. Lisa Totherow had returned home from work at York Church of God, Payne said.
John Totherow initially told the deputies there had been an intruder and his mother told him to run out of the house, Payne said in court. Deputies and a SWAT team found no intruder, Payne said.
Doors locked from the inside and other evidence showed there was no one else in the house when deputies found Lisa Totherow, Payne said. Deputies later charged John Totherow with murder and the weapon violation.
Deputies found a Ruger handgun in the home that had been fired, Payne said in court. The gun matched the bullets that had been found in the shooting, Payne said.
The gun held only seven bullets so John Totherow had to reload the gun to fire more shots, Payne said.
“He fired on her in the hallway and kitchen, reloaded and continued to shoot,” Payne said.
Griffith stopped Payne, and the judge said he had heard enough about the case to accept the guilty plea.
“11 shots. I think I’ve got sufficient facts,” Griffith said.
Moving from juvenile court to adult court
John Totherow’s case had been in Family Court until recently.
Early in the case, prosecutors filed documents seeking to try John Totherow as an adult in what is called a “waiver” up to adult court. For that to happen, a Family Court judge must agree. John Totherow and his lawyers had the right to challenge that attempt in a waiver hearing.
The waiver hearing was scheduled for this week, but never happened.
On Sept. 7 John Totherow and his lawyer, Nathan Sheldon, agreed to have the case waived up to adult court, according to statements in court Tuesday by Griffith, lawyers in the case, and court documents obtained by The Herald. A Family Court Judge approved the waiver.
“The court finds that this defendant shall be treated as an adult from this point forward,” states the Sept. 7 order from Family Court Judge Debra Matthews.
In that plea deal and waiver, John Totherow agreed to plead guilty in adult court to manslaughter and the weapon charge, and be sentenced as an adult. The result was the longer prison sentence even though the charge was changed from murder to manslaughter.
Prosecutors Payne and 16th Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett said in court Tuesday that, under South Carolina law, Totherow is now treated by the court as an adult and there is no longer any confidentiality of his identity.
A ‘sad case’
John Totherow did not make a statements in court Tuesday except to plead guilty and tell the judge he had agreed to the waiver to adult court.
His lawyer, Nathan Sheldon, said in court that a defense medical expert had found that Totherow had no previous record and was not likely to re-offend.
“This is an egregious case, a sad case,” Sheldon said.
Kenny Totherow, father of John Totherow and husband of Lisa Totherow, spoke at the hearing Tuesday.
“I will not give up on him,” Kenny Totherow told Griffith. “That’s my son. I love him.”
What happens now?
John Totherow has to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence and gets credit for the 497 days of jail time since his arrest in May 2022, Griffith said in court. He could be eligible for release after about 24 years, Griffith said.
Totherow will be housed in juvenile detention until age 18, when he will be transferred to the adult S.C. Department of Corrections for the remainder of his sentence.
This story was originally published September 13, 2023 at 10:00 AM.
