Judge: No shorter sentence or new trial in retired Rock Hill officer’s death
A South Carolina judge has denied a request to shorten the life sentence of Evan Hawthorne, a Rock Hill man convicted of murder last summer in the 2021 death of retired Rock Hill police officer Larry Vaughan, records show.
Judge Keith Kelly of Spartanburg, the trial judge in the case, also denied Hawthorne’s request for a new trial over a knife found at the scene that was not documented into evidence and arguments over an injury to Vaughan’s thumb, a court order states.
Vaughan, a retired Rock Hill police lieutenant known as “LV,” was found dead in July 2021 in his downtown apartment. Hawthorne was arrested the next day. A York County jury found him guilty in September and Kelly sentenced him to life without parole.
Hawthorne’s trial lawyers, Jack Swerling and Todd Rutherford, argued he acted in self-defense. The defense lawyers also argued law enforcement was biased against Hawthorne because York County Sheriff’s Office investigators were friends with Vaughan and used Vaughan’s handcuffs on Hawthorne.
Prosecutors from Spartanburg handled the case because York County prosecutors knew Vaughan. Prosecutors said in the trial Hawthorne followed Vaughan back to his apartment from a bar then beat Vaughan’s face and strangled him.
The defense argued that the life sentence was too harsh.
Kelly ruled that life without parole was appropriate, according to the March 10 order. A murder conviction in South Carolina carries a minimum of 30 years.
“After carefully considering the facts and circumstances as found by the jury and considering all the information offered by the Defendant, this court denies the Motion to Reconsider the Sentence,” Kelly wrote in his order.
Judge: No new trial over knife, thumb
Kelly held hearings in early February after Hawthorne’s lawyers filed documents.
“The court denied the oral motion at the time and nothing presented at the renewed motion for new trial or in the Defendant’s filing convinces the court that its original decision was in error,” Kelly wrote in his order. “If anything, the court has more support for the original ruling since the time of the initial denial of the Motion for New Trial.”
The knife not booked into evidence that was brought up by the defense as an alleged violation during trial was again argued in February, according to the order. Kelly ruled the knife was not grounds for a new trial.
Swerling filed an appeal of both Kelly’s rulings and the conviction and sentence on Thursday with the S.C. Court of Appeals, records show. It is unclear when the appeals court will hear the case.
