Charleston man gets decades in prison after involvement with murder of girlfriend
A man accused of helping to dispose of the body of his dead girlfriend was found guilty by a Charleston jury.
Following a week-long trial, Mark Dwayne Walton, 36, was found guilty of accessory after the fact to murder and desecration of human remains. On Nov. 7, Judge Charles J. McCutchen sentenced Walton to 25 years in prison, the maximum — 15 years on the accessory charge and 10 years on the desecration count.
In 2020, Walton, of Charleston, was arrested after police discovered the body of his girlfriend, Celia Marie Sweeney, 28, days after she was reported missing. Sweeney was found near a Spartanburg County home, stuffed inside a 45-gallon Husky Tote, according to the solicitor’s office.
The home belonged to Buddy Carr, who was a person of interest in Sweeney’s disappearance. After locating Sweeney’s body, police found Carr dead inside the home with a gun in his hand. He’d suffered from a single gunshot wound to the head, a news release said.
Evidence presented at trial showed that Sweeney had been severely beaten with more than 40 blunt force blows to her head with what prosecutors believe was the back side of a hammer.
Evidence also revealed that Carr and Walton, who were longtime friends, purchased a number of supplies from Home Depot, including bags of cement and latex gloves that were used to dispose of Sweeney’s body.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant Solicitors Benjamin Simpson and Tyra Roberts. Walton was represented by attorneys J. Scott Bischoff II, and William Sean McGuire of Adams & Bischoff.
This story was originally published November 13, 2025 at 5:21 PM.
