Mentally ill son who killed prominent SC lawyer gets five years prison

The son of a prominent Rock Hill lawyer, who shot and killed his father in 2015, was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty but mentally ill to manslaughter.

Judge Edward Miller of Greenville could have sentenced Osiris Hinton to as much as 35 years for the guilty but mentally ill plea to voluntary manslaughter and a weapons charge. Miller gave Hinton five years in prison, plus five years intensive probation.

Yet, because of spending the past 27 months in jail awaiting trial, Hinton could be free in as little as two years, his lawyer said.

Hinton, 26, has been treated since 2011 for schizophrenia, hospitalized twice and still has “bizarre delusions” and “hears as many as 30 voices in his head” according to court testimony. He admitted using his father’s gun in the killing of Cyrus Hinton on April 12, 2015 at the family’s Spartanburg home. Cyrus Hinton’s law office was in Rock Hill and he was a well-known defense lawyer in both private practice in York County and at the county public defender office.

Osiris Hinton remains “actively psychotic,” and still hallucinates, psychiatrist Donna Maddox testified Tuesday in a hearing.

“He still is hearing a voice that says, “Dad!’ ” Maddox said.

The Hinton family and their lawyer say a doctor changed the son’s medication, which pushed Osiris to violence.

The Hinton family was pleased with Tuesday’s sentence. Osiris Hinton had no criminal record and the violence was called a “complete anomaly,” that the family lawyer said deviated from a normally quiet and respectful young man dealing with mental illness.

“My son is harboring in his own hell because of mental illness,” said Phoebe Hinton, mother of Osiris Hinton and wife of Cyrus Hinton.

However, prosecutors wanted a much harsher sentence. They said Osiris Hinton has mental illness but he shot his father in the face after Cyrus told Orsiris he could not go for a bike ride. Prosecutors agreed to drop a murder charge down to voluntary manslaughter.

“Cyrus Hinton was well respected and loved...I knew Cyrus Hinton, he was a fine man, salt of the earth,” said Barry Barnette, 7th Circuit Solicitor, in court. “We need to remember the victim. He was the victim.”

Barnette told Miller that Orsiris refused to listen to his father.

“He (Cyrus Hinton) wouldn’t let him ride his bike, so (Orsiris) went and got his father’s gun and shot him in the face,” Barnette said.

Barnette declined to comment on the sentence after the hearing.

During the hearing, Brenda Hinton, mother of Cyrus, pleaded with Miller that her grandson was not a murderer. She said the son and father were very close.

Yet Brenda Hinton said she had urged her son not to keep a gun around the house where Osiris could get it.

“He (Cyrus) taught him how to use it (the gun) ...” Brenda Hinton said. “He took him to target practice. I told him to hide it.”

Treatment will be provided for Osiris Hinton for mental illness both in and out of prison, said Brown the family lawyer.

This story was originally published July 19, 2017 at 7:57 AM with the headline "Mentally ill son who killed prominent SC lawyer gets five years prison."