Woman’s ex guilty of her murder, gets life BY KEN BELL Ginther guilty of his ex- James Ginther III Special to The Sumter Item wife’s death. is taken out of SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2019 $1.75 Ginther was also found the courtroom Ten years and one day after guilty of kidnapping 27-year- Friday after a SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894 James Ginther III married old Suzette “Suzy” Ginther. jury delivered a his high school sweetheart, Cothran vacated that sen- guilty verdict on Circuit Court Judge Ferrell tence because of the murder both counts, for Cothran Jr. sentenced him to charge. In South Carolina, kidnapping and life in prison for killing her. there is no parole for a life murder. He will A jury of seven men and sentence. spend the rest of five women deliberated for al- Suzy Ginther’s body was his life in prison. 4 SECTIONS, 28 PAGES | VOL. 124, NO. 126 most an hour on Friday at discovered buried in a shallow the Sumter County Judicial MICAH GREEN / THE Center before finding James SEE SENTENCED, PAGE A10 SUMTER ITEM Farmer: New hemp law is ‘tremendous opportunity’ S.C. prison tests phone jamming A2 SPORTS Top of leaderboard crowded as The Masters enters weekend B1 PHOTOS BY MICAH GREEN / THE SUMTER ITEM Nat Bradford hand harvests the last bit of his collards Friday before bringing in the spring crop. These collards go straight to Charleston and are in chefs’ hands by that afternoon. The amended South Carolina bill on hemp farming will allow the state DEATHS, B6 to be competitive with other states. Bradford was one of 40 original permitted growers in the state. Carrie Lou Dunlap Dasie Mae Ham Gamble Florentina ‘Polly’ Depra Program expansion opens door for state to be Barbara Ann Mack Lisa M. Kinard competitive on national scale, Bradford says Leroy McDonald Mary Alice Wilson BY BRUCE MILLS ‘I get out here because James ‘Beau’ Stanley [email protected] that’s an old passion from While picking collards Friday morning for a delivery later in the childhood to work with WEATHER, A12 day to a Charleston restaurant chef, STORMY SUNDAY Sumter County farmer Nat Brad- plants and having my Cloudy and breezy today, warm with a chance of ford discussed a newly signed law rain; tonight, change of strong thunderstorms that will expand the state’s hemp hands in the dirt.’ HIGH 82, LOW 57 program. The amended South Carolina In- NAT BRADFORD dustrial Hemp bill — which became law March 28 — allows for more po- Sumter County farmer INSIDE CONTACT US tential growers this year on unlimit- Classifieds C6 Info: 774-1200 ed acreage as the state tries to be- market and take advantage of op- Comics D1 Advertising: 774-1237 come competitive on the national portunities. Opinion A11 Classifieds: 774-1200 scale with hemp. By comparison, he said, North Outdoors C1 Delivery: 774-1258 With the new legislation, permit- Carolina has at least 400 hemp Panorama A5 News and Sports: ted hemp growers in the Palmetto farmers on thousands of acres. State will expand from 40 farmers Now, South Carolina has the same Reflections C2 774-1226 Television C5 this year to any of the 162 appli- potential. cants who previously sought a “The ball is in the farmers’ grower permit as long as they pass court,” Bradford said. “It’s a little VISIT US ONLINE AT the .com a background check. Also, a 40-acre late right now to make big changes cap per farmer has been removed. to your growing operation, but it’s a Industrial hemp has only become tremendous opportunity.” legal to grow in the U.S. in recent Historically, hemp was designated years, but Bradford said the state must move fast to keep up with the SEE HEMP, PAGE A10 Shaw commander tells governor parents concerned about district BY KAYLA ROBINS na Military Base they and their families are The state Board of Educa- The district was required to [email protected] Task Force’s an- taken care of,” O’Malley said. tion denied an appeal by the submit a financial recovery nual Command- “It’s my responsibility to en- district/school board on Tues- plan to the state Department When any family moves or ers Brief to the sure they don’t have to spend day that challenged state Su- of Education last summer be- is relocated, a top factor in Governor meet- their time worrying about the perintendent of Education cause it was under a fiscal where they buy or rent a ing on Monday, resources they need to not Molly Spearman’s declaration caution due to $6.2 million in home is the school and school where, among only live but thrive at Shaw of a fiscal emergency in Sum- overspending in fiscal year O’MALLEY system to which their chil- five topics he ad- Air Force Base.” ter School District. The decla- 2016, draining the general dren will attend. dressed, the qual- He told Gov. Henry McMas- ration was based on the fund balance to $106,449. That decision has weighed ity of a Sumter School Dis- ter during his time to speak board’s decision to reopen According to a 2-year-old heavily on military families trict education came up. that leaders at Shaw and mili- Mayewood Middle School in state law, the district must being assigned to Shaw Air “While airmen and soldiers tary parents whose children the fall after a financial recov- have one month’s operating Force Base, according to the from Shaw Air Force Base are attend school in Sumter ery plan submitted last year expenditures in its fund bal- 20th Fighter Wing’s com- doing the very important School District are “con- accounted for it being closed, ance by June 30, 2020, which, mander, Col. Derek O’Malley. work of fighting America’s cerned by the current finan- which it had been for this He attended the South Caroli- wars, it’s my job to guarantee cial state within the district.” school year. SEE PARENTS, PAGE A9 Now Open! Kmel]jk>af]klGml\ggj Danaf_K`gojgge Palmetto Gas Best Selection. Top Quality. 820 S. Pike Rd. Sumter 803-775-4321 Fireplaces & Fire Pits Kitchens & Grills Mon. - Fri. 8am - 5pm, Sat. 8am - 4pm NEW Sat. Gas Lights & Heaters Outdoor Furniture Hours! palmettogas.com A2 | SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2019 THE SUMTER ITEM Call: (803) 774-1226 | E-mail: [email protected] Cellphone jamming tested at S.C. state prison COLUMBIA (AP) — Federal officials officials said they were able to shut hearing in Washington alongside Rob- this week oversaw the test at a South down phone signals inside a prison ert Johnson, a former corrections of- Carolina prison of a cellphone signal cell, while devices about 20 feet away ficer at maximum-security Lee Cor- jamming technology that some hope worked normally — but a decades-old rectional Institution who was nearly will help combat the threat posed by law says state or local agencies don’t killed at his home in Sumter in 2010 inmates with smuggled cellphones, of- have the authority to jam the public in a hit orchestrated by an inmate ficials told The Associated Press. airwaves. using an illegal phone. Also that year, The test took place over the course South Carolina Corrections Director an inmate escaped from a maximum- of five days in a housing unit at Broad Bryan Stirling, who for years has spo- security prison in South Carolina, River Correctional Institution, a maxi- ken out on the dangers posed by the thanks in part to a smuggled cell- mum-security prison in Columbia, ac- devices smuggled into institutions by AP FILE PHOTO phone. In 2018, seven inmates at Lee cording to Department of Justice offi- the thousands, told AP he was recent- Capt. Robert Johnson is photographed in Correctional were killed in what offi- cials. Assistant Attorney General Beth ly deputized as a special deputy U.S. 2010 outside of the guard house at the cials have said was a gang fight over Williams told AP it’s the first time fed- Marshal, thus giving him the federal Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville territory and contraband including eral officials have collaborated with status needed to conduct the jamming where he was in charge of preventing cellphones. officials at a state prison for such a test. contraband from entering the facility be- The FCC has shown willingness to test. “I’m very encouraged by what we fore an attempt on his life that was work on the issue, holding a field Officials did not release the results witnessed at Broad River this week,” planned with a smuggled cellphone. hearing in South Carolina and hosting of the test, which will be included in a Stirling told AP on Friday, adding that meetings with members of Congress, later report to be done by the National he’s optimistic about federal legisla- prisons officials and stakeholders Telecommunications and Information tion, introduced last month, that prison dorm. from the wireless industry. Administration. would give state prison officials the Stirling and other state prison direc- On Friday, Williams said officials The test marks progress on the ability to jam signals. tors use other measures — like perim- are working to ensure prisons have state-level quest to stamp out contra- In 2008, South Carolina officials re- eter netting, monitoring by drone and technological options to help them band cellphone use, which officials ceived a waiver from the Federal Com- scanners — to detect cellphones but combat the smuggled devices. have long said represents the top secu- munications Commission to conduct a advocate a jamming technology that “It is very difficult to make sure that rity threat within their institutions.