Woman who stabbed wife and torched her car goes to prison, SC prosecutor says
A South Carolina woman is in prison after recently pleading guilty to stabbing her wife over and over then setting her car on fire, according to the 9th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Before her trial was set to begin, 28-year-old Lyric Whitfield pleaded guilty to attempted murder and third-degree arson charges, the solicitor’s office said in a news release.
Judge Charles McCutchen sentenced Whitfield to 20 years, suspended to 12 years, in a South Carolina Department of Corrections prison, according to the release.
The charges stem from a 2021 attack on Rondoshia Holmes that began inside of her car, the solicitor’s office said.
Holmes survived being stabbed 25 times in her head, neck, chest, arms and hands when she was attacked by Whitfield and her co-defendant, Desiree Brown, according to the release.
The attack happened June 18, 2021, when Holmes and Whitfield were married but separated, the solicitor’s office said.
Holmes didn’t know that Whitfield and Brown had met on the website Plenty of Fish and developed a relationship, according to the release. During Whitfield and Brown’s relationship, they regularly disparaged Holmes and discussed plans “to go after her,” the solicitor’s office said.
On the day of the attack, Holmes believed she was riding to a convenience store with Brown driving and Whitfield sitting behind her, according to the release. When she was attacked, Holmes was stabbed multiple times from behind, the solicitor’s office said.
Holmes jumped from the moving vehicle and sustained fractures in her arms before Brown stopped the vehicle, continued to stab Holmes, and stole her phone to keep her from calling for help, according to the release. Whitfield and Brown then left a bleeding Holmes in a dimly lit warehouse district in North Charleston, according to the solicitor’s office.
“Thankfully, a good Samaritan saw” Holmes in the road and stopped to call emergency responders for help, the solicitor’s office said.
Brown and Whitfield then took Holmes’ car to a wooded area where they abandoned the vehicle after dousing papers in lighter fluid and tried to burn the vehicle, according to the release. Law enforcement officers recovered the vehicle, which still contained blood from the stabbing, the solicitor’s office said.
A digital forensic examination located conversations between Whitfield and Brown in the hours after the attack on Holmes, as they were searching for news stories about a “person stabbed over twenty times,” and chatter about deleting all of their communications, according to the release.
When North Charleston Police Department Detective Jennifer Butler interviewed Whitfield, she waived her constitutional rights and admitted that she initiated the stabbing of Holmes inside the vehicle, the solicitor’s office said. Whitfield also said that she brought lighter fluid from her house to burn the vehicle, according to the release.
Whitfield was arrested June 25, 2021 and was denied bond, Charleston County court records show. The solicitor’s office said that Whitfield remained locked up the entire time before pleading guilty, and on May 8 she was admitted into the Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia, prison records show.
Whitfield’s prison sentence will be followed by 5 years of probation, the solicitor’s office said.
Brown pleaded guilty in August 2022 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to the solicitor’s office. In addition to attempted murder and third-degree arson charges, Brown also pleaded guilty to a count of first-degree domestic violence, prison records show. Brown — who is serving concurrent 20, 15 and 10 year prison sentences for the respective crimes — is currently being held in Leath Correctional Institution and is projected to be released in June 2038, according to prison records.
Current information on Holmes’ physical condition was not available, but prosecutors commended “her strength, composure and impact statements,” the solicitor’s office said.
Assistant Solicitors Jordan Norvell and Andrew Hulshult led the prosecution in Whitfield’s case, according to the release. Mary Eliza Joye was listed as Whitfield’s attorney, court records show.
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