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WHITMIRE — A game of dice between a couple ended with the man dead and the woman charged with stabbing him to death.

Union County Sheriff David Taylor announced Thursday that Christina Oliver, 36, 116 Hunters Trail, Whitmire, was charged with murder in the death of Kenneth Goins, 33, also of 116 Hunters Trail, Whitmire.

“We got the call around 11 p.m. Wednesday,” Taylor said. “When deputies arrived they found Mr. Goins unconscious on the floor bleeding profusely from a stab wound to his chest area. EMS was called to the scene and Mr. Goins was Medivacked to Spartanburg Regional where he died from his injuries a few hours later without regaining consciousness.”

Taylor said the incident began when Oliver and Goins, who he said were living together, got into an alcohol-fueled argument over a game of dice.

“They were playing dice and they’d been drinking all day,” Taylor said. “They got into an argument and the verbal argument escalated into a physical altercation. At some point during that altercation Miss Oliver took a butcher knife and stabbed Mr. Goins in the chest area.”

He added that deputies had been dispatched to the residence for domestic disputes in the past, but gave no further details about those incidents.

Taylor said Oliver’s son originally told deputies that Goins’ wound was the result of falling on a piece of glass. Further investigation, which Taylor said included the recovery of two knives from the scene, led deputies to discount this and arrest Oliver.

Oliver was taken to jail and booked shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday. Taylor said Oliver has talked with investigators since then, but he could provide no further details on what she’d said.

He added that Oliver’s son has not been charged with anything at the present time.

An autopsy on Goins’ body is scheduled to be performed at 8:30 a.m. Friday in Newberry.

Taylor said Oliver’s arrest brings to nine the number of people currently being held at the Union County Jail for murder or attempted murder. The other eight are:

• Lawshawn Brannon, 25, 254 Mt. Joy Church, Road, Union.

Brannon is charged by the sheriff’s office with murder and homicide by child abuse in the Dec. 16, 2011, death of 9-month-old Talayna Renwick.

He has been in jail since being arrested shortly after the child’s death and being denied bond earlier this year.

• Chadrick Harold Johnson, 23, 851 Cambridge St., Carlisle; Devonta Elemshion Mobley, 20, 124 Lawrence St., Carlisle; Daveus Lamonte Boler, 18, 4879 English Avenue, Carlisle; and Danny Ray Gossett, 21, 208 Leroy Gossett Road, Union.

Johnson, Mobley, Boler, and Gossett are charged with murder, attempted murder, malicious injury and discharging a firearm into a dwelling in the Aug. 12 shooting death of 17-year-0ld Dequan Jones and the wounding of another man.

The four were arrested in the weeks that followed the shooting and have remained in jail since. All four were denied bond by a Union County Magistrate after being arrested and Johnson and Mobley were denied bond by a Circuit Court judge earlier this month.

• Tevin Deonta Fair, 19, 737 Meadowbrook Road, Chester; Kiama Hason Sanders, 19, 789 Charitty Road, Chester; Cedric Jamaris Brown, 22, 5681 Woodsferry Road, Chester; and Najahwan Abdul Woodard, 18, 573 E. 2nd St., Chester.

Fair, Sanders, Brown, and Woodard are charged by the sheriff’s office with attempted murder, discharging a firearm at a vehicle, unlawful carrying of a handgun, simple possession of marijuana, and open container. Fair, Sanders, and Woodard are also charged with minor in possession of beer.

The four are accused of opening fire on a Union man in the parking lot of a Union night club on the morning of Aug. 4 and then firing on him again as he followed them on the Jonesville-Lockhart Highway. They were stopped and arrested inside Chester County by deputies with the assistance of the Chester County Sheriff’s Office.

Fair, Sanders and Woodard are still in jail after being denied bond by a Circuit Court judge earlier this month. Brown was granted bond but forbidden to return to Union County except for court and to work. He was also placed under a 6 p.m. curfew and forbidden to have any contact with the victim or the victim’s family.

Taylor said the recent spate of murders and attempted murders and the number of people involved is a disturbing development that he never expected to see in Union County.

“If somebody ever told me that Union County would have nine people in jail at the same time for murder or attempted murder, I’d have said that would never happen in Union County,” Taylor said. “It’s frightening to think that people think the only way you can resolve a difference is by taking a person’s life or attempting to take a person’s life. It really concerns me that we’re at that point in our society where there is such a reckless disregard for human life.”

Editor Charles Warner can be reached at 864-427-1234, ext. 14, or by email at cwarner@heartlandpublications.com.