June 22 SOUTH CAROLINA: State to seek death penalty against Columbia man charged with Holly Hill murder A Columbia man charged in the death of an Orangeburg County car salesman will face the death penalty. Last November 44-year-old Randy Bills was found shot to death in Holly Hill shortly after a meeting someone about selling a 2000 Chevrolet Corvette. Authorities say Bills received a call about the car after placing an ad in an automotive magazine and agreed to meet Levi Bing, 22, for a showing. Bing is charged with murder, grand larceny and illegal possession of a gun during a violent crime. The Orangeburg Times and Democrat newspaper is reporting the state will seek the death penalty in the case. A trial date has not been set. (source: WIS-TV news) NEW JERSEY: Murder suspect not facing execution In Toms River, the death penalty is off the table for a door-to-door magazine salesman accused of killing a 77-year-old Dover Township woman, after authorities discovered the defendant was a juvenile when the murder took place earlier this month. Azriel Rashad Bridge of Chicago lied to authorities about his birthday when he was arrested at an Elizabeth hotel on June 11 in connection with the murder two days earlier of Shirley Reuter in her Chestnut Street home, said Executive Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Ronald F. DeLigny. Prosecutor Thomas F. Kelaher said Bridge told authorities that his birth date was June 17, 1985, which would have made him 18 years old at the time. However, a birth certificate authorities received from Cook County, Ill., on Friday revealed that Bridge's birth date is June 17, 1986, Kelaher said. That means that Bridge was 17, not 18. He has since turned 18. The revelation means that the Prosecutor's Office will not have to decide whether to pursue the case as a capital case, since the law does not allow the death penalty for someone who was a minor when a killing is committed, Kelaher said. The Prosecutor's Office dismissed charges of murder, felony murder and robbery filed against Bridge in Superior Court, but filed the same charges against him in family court late Friday, Kelaher said. His staff, though, is drafting a motion to ask a judge to waive juvenile treatment for Bridge and allow him to be prosecuted as an adult in Superior Court. Under the law in juvenile cases, Bridge is now being held without bail. He had been jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail. Phone call key clue Authorities said Bridge stabbed and beat Reuter to death July 9 after she let the young man into her home for a glass of water and to use the bathroom as he was going door-to-door in her neighborhood trying to sell magazine subscriptions. Police were able to pinpoint the suspect because Reuter had been on the telephone with a friend and had told her she had let the man in. Soon, the phone went dead. Reuter's body was discovered the next day by 3 of her friends concerned because she had missed choir practice. Kelaher said Bridge was one of at least 11 people flown from the Midwest to New Jersey to sell magazine subscriptions door-to-door for Phoenix Imaging, a subsidiary or subcontractor of a Michigan City, Ind.-based magazine clearinghouse, American Community Services. However, Kelaher said authorities believe Bridge acted alone. Authorities seized several knives and a fireplace poker from Reuter's home that are being forensically tested to determine if any were used to kill the widow, according to DeLigny. Some items that were stolen from Reuter during the commission of the murder were found in Bridge's possession when he was arrested, DeLigny has said. (source: Asbury Park Press)
