A South Carolina woman was recently convicted of murder and sentenced to decades in prison, the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said in a news release Tuesday.
According to the release, Stacey McClintock Catoe was found guilty of murder by a Kershaw County jury on Oct. 15. Catoe was sentenced to 35 years in custody by the South Carolina Department of Corrections, the law firm said.
According to the press release, the conviction is related to the fatal shooting of 55-year-old Brenda Coates.
On June 17, 2018, at approximately 9:30 p.m., Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a shooting that occurred at the intersection of US 521 and Catoe Road in the Westville area, the law firm said.
Officers discovered Coates had been fatally shot in the neck, the news release said.
According to testimony at the trial, a passenger in Coates’ car asked her to stop to get something from the rear of the vehicle. The passenger said Catoe then pulled up next to Coates with the passenger window down and fired a single shot before driving away, the law firm said.
Officers said Catoe’s husband was the passenger in Coates’ car, WSOC-TV reported. Prosecutors said Coates and Catoe’s husband were lovers, WIS-TV reported.
Officers later found Catoe at a relative’s home, where she tried to hide her car near a wooded area, according to the notary’s office. Inside the vehicle, law enforcement officers found a .380 handgun along with a fired shell casing, the law firm said.
Testing by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed that the projectile recovered from Coates’ vehicle was fired from the .380 handgun found in Catoe’s car, according to the release.
An investigation that included phone analyzes found that Catoe had sent threats to Coates in the weeks leading up to the shooting, the law firm said. Information about the specific details of the threats was not available.
Coates was survived by her mother, two daughters, two sons and six grandchildren, among other relatives, according to an obituary.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dale Scott and Michael Bradbury prosecuted the case. Attorney Jack Swerling of Columbia served as Catoe’s attorney, Kershaw County court records show.
