South Carolina inmates charged in killing of four other prisoners

Two South Carolina prison inmates serving life sentences for murder were charged with killing four other inmates inside a maximum-security prison, the authorities said Saturday.

The accused inmates, Denver Jordan Simmons, 35, and Jacob Theophilus Philip, 25, were each charged with four counts of murder for the killings at Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia, the state capital, said Thom Berry, a spokesman for the state law enforcement division.

The slain inmates were identified as John King, 52, Jason Kelley, 35, William Scruggs, 44, and Jimmy Ham, 56.

The authorities said Simmons and Philip lured the four men into a cell Friday morning and strangled them. An arrest warrant said Ham had also been stabbed with a broomstick that had been sharpened into a weapon.

Simmons and Philip have admitted killing the men, and at least a portion of the attacks was captured by the prison’s surveillance video cameras, according to the arrest warrants. The reason the four were killed was not clear.

Their bodies were discovered by guards about 10:30 a.m. Friday, after inmates at the prison had eaten breakfast.

Ham was scheduled for release in November after serving a sentence for a variety of offenses, according to a report by The Associated Press. Kelley was serving 15 years for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and was scheduled for release in August 2020. King was serving time for a variety of crimes and had a projected release date of October 2020. Scruggs was sentenced to life in prison for murder and firstdegree burglary.

According to South Carolina media reports, Philip was arrested in 2013 for killing his 26-year-old girlfriend and her 8-year-old daughter. He pleaded guilty in 2015 in exchange for life without parole, The State newspaper in Columbia reported, citing court records.

Simmons pleaded guilty in 2010 to the killing of a 45-yearold woman and her 13-year-old son in 2007, according to The Post and Courier in Charleston. He received two life sentences.