‘Vigilante’ gets 10 years for plot against grandfather accused of abuse

The Rock Hill woman who masterminded a vigilante plot for money and revenge against the grandfather she says abused her was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday.

Kaylan Whiteside, 22, pleaded guilty to burglary and attempted murder charges stemming from the August 2014 incident, during which Wayne O. Whiteside Sr., now 71, was shot at his home outside Rock Hill.

Whiteside underwent treatment for mental illness and tried to commit suicide three times after sexual abuse by her grandfather led to years of alcohol and drug abuse, her lawyer, Stuart Axelrod, said Monday. That included the heavy use of methamphetamine before the August 2014 shooting, he said.

Whiteside cried several times in court Monday and apologized for the plot that led to the shooting.

“I am sorry for what happened,” she told Circuit Judge John C. Hayes III. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

Wayne Whiteside, a Vietnam War veteran, was not in court Monday. His sister said in court he has undergone several surgeries since being shot and continues to suffer.

Charges of conspiracy and possession of a weapon during a violent crime against Whiteside were dropped as part of a plea deal with the 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. She faced up to 45 years in prison for the attempted murder and burglary charges. Prosecutors took no position on sentencing.

Axelrod asked Hayes to impose a two-year sentence because of the abuse Whiteside endured as a child and the brutal life she had lived in trying to deal with that abuse.

The judge settled on a sentence of 10 years.

“When you mix drugs, mental illness and guns,” Hayes said, “you have a cocktail, a recipe for disaster.”

Prosecutors were satisfied with the sentence, assistant solicitor Jessica Holland said.

According to court testimony, the plot against Wayne Whiteside began in 2014, when his granddaughter was desperate for money to feed a $300-per-day methamphetamine addiction.

Investigators say Wolfgang Liewald, a friend of Kaylan Whiteside who also claimed to have been a sexual abuse victim as a child, and another co-defendant went to Wayne Whiteside’s home in August 2014 with duct tape and restraints while Kaylan Whiteside waited outside in a getaway car.

When confronted by an armed Wayne Whiteside allegedly pointing a gun at third co-defendant Ben Patrick Smith, 43, Liewald shot him.

Liewald pleaded guilty to attempted murder and burglary in May and was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Smith, who faces the same charges as Liewald and Whiteside – attempted murder, burglary, conspiracy and possession of a weapon during a violent crime – has yet to stand trial.

At Liewald’s sentencing hearing in May, his lawyer called the plot a drug-induced attempt at “vigilante” justice for the abuse Kaylan Whiteside endured as a child in 2005.

In a statement to police after she was arrested, Whiteside told police her grandfather “deserved it,” adding, “If it would have been me (who shot Wayne Whiteside), it would have been self-defense.”

Axelrod said the abuse of Kaylan Whiteside as a child “permeated” her life, likening it to a rotting piece of chicken left in a drawer to penetrate and foul all around it.

“You can hide it for a while,” he said, “but it begins to stink.”

Kaylan Whiteside’s mother, Janice Bryant, blamed her daughter’s addiction – the need for money to buy more drugs – for the crime.

“She is not a criminal mastermind,” Bryant said in court.

Two other relatives of Wayne Whiteside told Judge Hayes they, too, had been molested by him as children decades ago, but they did not come forward until years later. Both said in court that failure to act was a mistake.

Kaylan Whiteside’s sister, Heather Whiteside who did not allege having been abused by her grandfather, did say in court that the family “swept the (abuse) allegations under the rug.”

In 2005, Wayne Whiteside was charged with committing or attempting a lewd act on a minor, court records show. He pleaded guilty in 2005 to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and was sentenced to five years’ probation.

Holland said the allegations of abuse against Whiteside raised in court Monday by other family members have never been reported to law enforcement.

This story was originally published August 31, 2015 at 11:49 AM with the headline "‘Vigilante’ gets 10 years for plot against grandfather accused of abuse."