SC man gets 2 life sentences for murder of pregnant woman, child

A North Charleston man will spend the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of the murder of his pregnant girlfriend and their child.

Ricky Anthony Short was convicted Friday of two counts of murder and for the possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, according to the Charleston solicitor's office. He received two life sentences for the crimes.

On Oct. 10, 2015, police were called to the Ferndale neighborhood of North Charleston and found Malakia Frazier, who was more than six months pregnant and had been stabbed 30 times.

Frazier later died from her wounds, but her daughter was born by emergency caesarean section at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. The child survived in neonatal intensive care for two weeks before she died from complications from her premature birth.

Family named the girl Miracle.

Police detained Short at the scene of the crime after learning that he was Frazier’s boyfriend and the father of her child. He told detectives that the couple had been in a heated argument that night, and that she had stormed off. When he went to check on her, he found that she had been stabbed, he said.

The officers noted scratches on Short's face and hand, as well as inconsistencies in his story. After a search of the neighborhood, police found a large steak knife hidden with bloody clothing nearby. Testing found DNA from both Short and Frazier on the items.

Short told police that he had given the clothing to a homeless man a few weeks prior. He also said the cuts on his hand were from thorny flowers that he picked for Frazier a few days earlier.

Short's attorney A. Peter Shahid, Jr. argued Short did not murder Frazier, and that Miracle was not viable at the time her mother was stabbed and killed, and therefore was not considered a “person” under South Carolina law.

The jury disagreed, convicting Short on both counts of murder.

"Our team felt strongly that Miracle’s sweet life had value both in the womb and after she was born so prematurely," said Charleston County Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, thanking MUSC's Dr. John Cahill for testifying to Miracle's viability outside the womb. "Dr. Cahill did excellent work in explaining the medical issues to the jury.”

Assistant Solicitors Burns Wetmore and Richard Waring prosecuted the case for the solicitor's office.

“This was one of the saddest cases that I have prosecuted in my long time at the solicitor’s office," Wetmore said, "and I hope that this verdict can bring some measure of comfort to the Frazier family."

This story was originally published April 21, 2018 at 3:00 PM with the headline "SC man gets 2 life sentences for murder of pregnant woman, child."