Brad Sigmon
Brad Keith Sigmon was an American convicted murderer who was executed for the 2001 double murder of his ex-girlfriend's parents in South Carolina. Sigmon was convicted of bludgeoning David and Gladys Larke, aged 62 and 59, respectively, to death with a baseball bat on April 27, 2001, a week after he and his former girlfriend had broken up.
Subsequently, Sigmon was found guilty and given two death sentences for the double murder. He was also given a 30-year jail term for first-degree burglary. Sigmon was executed by firing squad on March 7, 2025, becoming the first person in almost 15 years to be executed by this method after Ronnie Lee Gardner, as well as the oldest person executed in the state.
Early life
Brad Keith Sigmon was born to Ronnie and Virginia Sigmon on November 12, 1957, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. His mother was only 17 when he was born, and his four younger siblings were within one year apart from each other. Sigmon's father was part of the US military. As a result, the family frequently needed to move. Sigmon was raised initially in Taylors, South Carolina, and Greer, South Carolina, and later in other towns in the state as well as the Philippines shortly after the birth of his youngest sibling.Sigmon's parents eventually divorced when he was still young, as Ronnie was an alcoholic who often abused Virginia. This, along with the other challenges of being a young mother, and adapting to military life, proved difficult for Virginia. Although Ronnie allegedly never hit the younger four children, he physically abused Sigmon who would often try to protect Virginia from Ronnie's beatings. The parents eventually married other people, and Sigmon often moved back and forth between the homes of his parents and stepparents.
Sigmon began to work at age 16 while still in high school in Simpsonville to help alleviate his family's financial burden. After his parents' divorce, he took on the responsibility of taking care of his younger siblings. At age 18, Sigmon's string of criminal activity began in Greer with an armed robbery charge on May 29, 1976.
In 1977, Sigmon dropped out of high school in order to marry. The couple moved from Upstate South Carolina to Manning, South Carolina, shortly before their marriage, and would later have a son. According to Sigmon's son, parents, siblings, stepfather, and aunt, Sigmon was a loving son, father, and brother who deeply cared about his family.
Court sources revealed that Sigmon struggled with both drug use problems and mental health issues during his adulthood. Throughout much of the 1980s, his criminal record was mostly DUI and DWI charges. On November 17, 1990, Sigmon was treated at a Clarendon County hospital after being shot several times in the stomach while breaking into his wife's home in Manning in connection with a domestic dispute. Their 12-year-old son was also injured after being struck by one bullet in the arm. Sigmon was transported after treatment to Richland County for surgery before being released around a week later. Sigmon returned to Greenville County later in the 1990s where he last resided in the city of Greenville.
Murders of David and Gladys Larke
Sigmon had been in a romantic relationship with Rebecca Barbare for about three years. They lived together in a trailer. However, early in 2001, Barbare ended their relationship and moved in with her parents William David Larke and Gladys Gwendolyn Larke nearby at 948 East Darby Road in Taylors, South Carolina. Sigmon became progressively more obsessed with her, even going as far as to stalk her in an attempt to check if she was dating another man, in addition to his requests to rekindle their relationship.After Sigmon and his friend Eugene Strube spent the night of April 26, 2001, drinking alcohol and consuming cocaine, Sigmon informed Strube that when Barbare left to take her children to school, he planned to go to the Larkes' house, "tie her parents up", and "get a hold of" Barbare. Strube was initially supposed to follow along with Sigmon's plan, but he later backed out.
On April 27, Sigmon entered the home of the Larkes, where he found 62-year-old David Larke in the kitchen and Gladys Larke in the living room. Armed with a baseball bat, Sigmon attacked the couple, beating them with the bat, going back and forth between the two rooms. Each of the Larkes sustained nine blows to their heads, which crushed their skulls. After murdering the Larkes, Sigmon stole David's gun and waited for Rebecca Barbare to return home.
When she arrived, Sigmon forced her into a 2001 Honda Passport at gunpoint. Sigmon's plan was to switch vehicles and drive his car up to North Carolina with Barbare. However, Barbare managed to jump out of the Honda and run away. Sigmon shot at her while giving chase, but Barbare managed to escape. Sigmon relented and fled the scene. Barbare subsequently underwent treatment in the Greenville Memorial Hospital.
After the murders became known, the police conducted a nationwide manhunt for Sigmon. A charge sheet was issued for Sigmon on charges of murder and kidnapping and assault with intent to kill. After 11 days, Sigmon was captured in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Then, he was extradited back to South Carolina. The state authorities also planned to seek the death penalty for Sigmon with respect to the double murder charges.
Trial and appeals
After his arrest, Sigmon was indicted by a South Carolina grand jury for two counts of murder, first-degree burglary, and other offenses, including kidnapping. Sigmon eventually stood trial in July 2002 for both counts of murder and a single count of first-degree burglary, and he reportedly admitted his guilt to the jury. The jury subsequently found him guilty of all charges, and they would decide on his sentence.The prosecution sought the death penalty for Sigmon, stating that both Gladys and David Larke suffered the "most horrific death," and based on the aggravating factors of the case, Sigmon should be sentenced to death, so as to show him the same mercy he demonstrated to his victims. The defense, in response, urged the jury to consider that Sigmon acted out due to his relationship issues. Seeking life imprisonment for Sigmon, the defense cited the mitigating factors of Sigmon's case, including his good behaviour in jail and adulthood drug problems. Eventually, the jury unanimously agreed to sentence Sigmon to death for both counts of murder on July 20, 2002. Apart from the two death sentences, Sigmon was also sentenced to 30 years in prison for the burglary charge.
On December 19, 2005, the South Carolina Supreme Court turned down Brad Sigmon's direct appeal against his two death sentences and double murder conviction. On May 8, 2013, Sigmon's second appeal to the South Carolina Supreme Court was also rejected. On September 30, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina dismissed Sigmon's first federal appeal.
On April 14, 2020, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Sigmon's appeal. On January 11, 2021, Sigmon's final appeal was dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
2021 and 2022 death warrants
After exhausting all his avenues of appeal, Brad Sigmon was originally scheduled to be executed on February 12, 2021. However, on February 5, 2021, one week before his execution date, Sigmon was issued an indefinite stay of execution by the South Carolina Supreme Court. The court found that the state did not have the drugs necessary to facilitate the execution of Sigmon by lethal injection, which was the state's sole legal method of execution.At that time, South Carolina had effectively imposed an unofficial moratorium on executions following the state's last execution in 2011. This was due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs, caused by the expiration of existing supplies and the refusal of many pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs for executions.
In response to the state's inability to carry out lethal injections, lawmakers in South Carolina passed new legislation to reintroduce and legalize the electric chair and firing squad as alternative methods for future executions when lethal injection was not an option. The absence of lethal injection drugs in the state would eventually be resolved in September 2023, after the state authorities had successfully acquired new drugs, allowing it to resume lethal injection executions.
After the new laws were passed, Sigmon and another death row inmate, Freddie Eugene Owens, had new execution dates set. Sigmon was rescheduled to be executed by the electric chair on June 18, 2021, while Owens's date was set exactly one week later. However, Sigmon's second death warrant was suspended, after the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the executions of Sigmon and Owens should be postponed until they were given the choice of death by electrocution or firing squad—especially because the legalization of latter option was yet to be finalized and the former option was the sole available execution method at this point in time. Another reason the court stayed their executions was that both Owens and Sigmon had filed a lawsuit against the state's revival of the electric chair.
A year later, Sigmon's third death warrant was issued, rescheduling his execution date to May 13, 2022. However, in light of a lawsuit filed by the condemned against the electric chair and firing squad execution methods, Sigmon received another stay of execution until the full resolution of the lawsuit.
Lawsuit against state execution policies
In 2023, Brad Sigmon was among several death row prisoners who filed a lawsuit against South Carolina over the state's decision to introduce the firing squad and electric chair as alternative execution methods. The inmates argued that these methods were unconstitutional because they could inflict unnecessary pain and suffering, constituting cruel and unusual punishment. In response, the state argued that both the electric chair and firing squad adhered to existing legal procedures, and there was no legal precedent requiring executions to be instantaneous or painless for those sentenced to death.On July 31, 2024, the South Carolina Supreme Court, in a five-judge ruling, dismissed the lawsuit and upheld the constitutionality of both the electric chair and firing squad. The majority of the justices voiced support for these methods, with three backing the firing squad and four favoring the electric chair. This ruling paved the way for the potential resumption of executions in South Carolina, affecting all 32 inmates on the state's death row, including Sigmon. At the time of this ruling, five condemned inmates – consisting of Sigmon, Freddie Eugene Owens, Mikal Mahdi, Richard Bernard Moore, and Marion Bowman Jr. – had exhausted all avenues of appeal and were listed for imminent execution on later dates.
The 13-year moratorium on executions in South Carolina came to an end on September 20, 2024, when one of the five inmates, Freddie Owens, was executed for the 1997 murder of a convenience store clerk. Richard Moore later became the second condemned inmate to die on November 1, 2024. Marion Bowman Jr. became the third of the six condemned inmates on the list to die on January 31, 2025.