Staff Writer

Joshua Howell will spend the next 49 years of his life in prison for killing Margaret Ann Stevens.

Howell, 21, was sentenced Thursday afternoon by Judge Larry B. Hyman Jr. after pleading guilty to the Aug. 19, 2007, murder of Mrs. Stevens. Under South Carolina law there is no parole for murder and Howell will serve his entire sentence.

Mrs. Stevens, 40, was found strangled to death by family and friends on a path near the Buffalo Mill Pond. Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett said Mrs. Stevens had gone to meet with Howell around 2 a.m. to purchase pills from him. A friend who knew about Mrs. Stevens' plans told investigators with the Union County Sheriff's Office that she called Mrs. Stevens around 1:55 a.m. and was told that she was with Howell. The woman said Mrs. Stevens told her that Howell was trying to get her to go into the woods with him but she was refusing to go. The woman said she tried several times later to call Mrs. Stevens again but could not reach her.

Thursday's hearing was an emotional affair for Howell, his family and friends, along with the family and friends of Mrs. Stevens. For most of the hearing, Howell stood, head bowed, Bible in hand, at times wiping his eyes and nose with tissues handed him by the assistant clerk of court. He only spoke when questioned by the judge, usually answering “Yes sir” or “No sir.”

The major exception was when the judge permitted him to address the court. Howell, his voice breaking with emotion and tears rolling down his face, said he didn't understand why he did what he did and wouldn't have done it if he hadn't been on drugs. He said he didn't even have a life anymore, that he'd “taken away somebody's mommy” and “I'm sorry.”

Public Defender Harry Dest told the court that on the day of the murder, Howell had consumed Xanax, Oxycontin, cocaine and beer. Dest said that in three statements given after his arrest, Howell said he couldn't believe what he'd done, that he didn't understand why he'd done what he did, that he remembered choking Mrs. Stevens but it was all a blur. He said that it was intoxication from the drugs and alcohol that caused Howell - who previously had no history of violence - to do what he'd done.

Brackett told the court that during their investigation, deputies interviewed a man who told them Howell had to come him looking for a ride out of town, saying he thought he'd killed someone by choking them. He said that when deputies found Howell he was snorting cocaine. When questioned by investigators, Howell claimed that he and Mrs. Stevens had sex and then for some reason he began choking her from behind with his hands and then wrapped his belt around her neck. After she was dead, he took her cell phone with him.

During Thursday's hearing, Howell's mother, Betty Keith, delivered an emotional appeal for mercy for her son. Mrs. Keith said that she had deep sympathy for Mrs. Stevens' family and that her son never meant for this to happen. She spoke of her son's desire to go back to school and turn his life around. Mrs. Keith even blamed herself for what happened, saying that her son had asked her to go out with him that night but that she didn't feel like going. She said that if she had it wouldn't have happened. Like Dest, Mrs. Keith blamed drugs and alcohol for her son's behavior.

“I know if Josh hadn't been drinking or doing drugs this wouldn't have happened,” Mrs. Keith said. “I'm truly sorry and I hope the family will forgive him. He has learned from his mistake and I ask the court to have mercy on him.”

Mercy in this case is 30 years in prison without possibility of parole, the minimum allowed under South Carolina law. The maximum is life without possibility of parole and that's what Mrs. Stevens' family asked the court to give Howell.

Addressing the court on behalf of Mrs. Stevens' family was her daughter, Kimberly Groves, her mother, Brenda Groves, and her sister, Julie Stephens. Their testimony was emotional, especially that of Kimberly Groves, whose words were often consumed by her sobs as she spoke of six children and two grandchildren left without a mother and grandmother. She said the trauma to her mother's body was so great the youngest of her children and her grandchildren could not be permitted to see Mrs. Stevens' body lying in state.

Brenda Groves said that while her heart went out to Howell's family she wanted no mercy for him. “I feel every inch of pain. He might as well have killed me.”

Julie Stephens said that in killing her sister, Howell had taken away something very precious from their family. Like her mother and niece, she too called for Howell to receive life without parole so that he would never get out.

Family members and friends of both Howell and Mrs. Stevens broke down in tears during the pleas by his family members.

In rendering his verdict, Judge Hyman told Howell that it was “by your action that we are here today. No matter how sorry you are or the reasons you have you have placed us in a difficult, difficult situation. You are the one responsible for all the grief in this room.”