By Skylar Laird
SCDailyGazette.com
BISHOPVILLE — A Lee County jury found the first inmate to be tried for America’s deadliest prison riot in a quarter-century guilty of all charges.
Michael Juan Smith, 31, was convicted and sentenced Friday, Dec. 8 to 40 years in prison for stabbing fellow inmate Cornelius McClary, who died with 101 stab wounds exacted by Smith and his fellow gang members. Concluding a week-long trial, jurors deliberated for less than an hour before finding Smith guilty of criminal conspiracy, assault and battery in a mob, and possession of a weapon.
McClary, 33, was among seven inmates who died during the 2018 riot.
Smith was at the maximum-security state prison in Lee County serving a 40-year sentence for attempted murder after shooting into a crowd in Columbia’s Five Points district in 2013 and striking then-University of South Carolina freshman Martha Childress, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. In 2020, the state Supreme Court overturned his conviction, granting him the right to a retrial. He has been in the Richland County jail since. A new trial in that case has yet to be scheduled.
Even though the charges are unrelated, prosecutor Barney Giese told reporters he hopes Childress and her family are reassured that Smith will return to prison.
“I hope that this verdict and this sentence give (Childress) and her family some peace of mind,” Giese said Friday.
Throughout the trial, attorneys painted a grisly picture of inmates slashing inmates, leaving seven dead and more than 20 injured in one of worst prison riots in U.S. history. Lawyers for both sides agreed on a basic narrative, supported by video on security cameras throughout the facility.
What happened?
Violence erupted in one of the prison’s dorms around 7 p.m. on April 15, 2018, when Michael Milledge, a well-liked 44-year-old prisoner, was fatally stabbed in his unlocked cell. Gang members retaliated, killing Milledge’s killer and attacking members of his gang. The Bloods versus Crips gang violence spread to other dorms as inmates communicated the attacks and sought retribution using cellphones that are illegal but common throughout prisons.
After word reached Smith’s housing unit, a group of Crips locked themselves in a room, with Bloods gathering outside.
The Bloods, including Smith, found McClary, a member of the Crips, on the other end of the dorm. Smith and several other men chased McClary down a set of stairs and stabbed him over and over again. Smith stabbed McClary around 10 times in the front and the back, prosecutors said.
Smith claimed he acted in self defense.
His attorney, Aimee Zmroczek, argued Smith was afraid for his life as the prison descended into chaos. By that point, Smith had seen photos of fellow gang members in other dorms stabbed to death, and he believed the Crips in his dorm were planning to do the same to him.
Zmroczek pointed to flaws in the prison system that led to the riot, including chronic understaffing, a recent transfer of 250 inmates from another prison and an unchecked contraband market. Knowing no guards were coming to help, Smith turned on a man he thought was threatening him and his friends, Zmroczek said.
“I will say this until I’m blue in the face: SCDC caused this,” Zmroczek said in her closing statement, referring to the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
But Smith’s actions weren’t out of fear, prosecutor Barney Giese argued and the jury agreed. Instead, he stabbed McClary out of revenge for the Bloods killed in the other dorms.
“He wants to retaliate,” Giese said in his closing statement, showing video of Smith stabbing McClary. “He wants to finish it.”
It is unclear what will happen with the remaining 47 inmates indicted for their role in the riot. Smith’s conviction could convince more inmates to plead guilty, joining 11 inmates to already do so.
“I think this sends a message that the people in Lee County and the Department of Corrections aren’t going to put up with this kind of activity,” Giese told reporters after the trial.
The prison has undergone major reforms in the years since the riot, Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said Friday.
Inmates are now reclassified based on good behavior, meaning an inmate can earn a spot in the medium-security parts of the prison, reserving maximum security only for people causing persistent problems, Stirling said.
The Legislature also gave the department a historic $92 million in 2021 for upgrades, including fixing malfunctioning locks. Department officials are continuing to ask for money to fund improvement, such as updating an antiquated door-locking system, Stirling said.
On top of that, Corrections officials are requesting $34 million to widely implement a program to shut off contraband cellphones in the hopes of preventing widespread violence like in the Lee County riot from happening again. The program is already in place at the Lee County prison, and officials have confiscated nearly 900 phones since July, Stirling said.
Skylar Laird covers the South Carolina Legislature and criminal justice issues. Originally from Missouri, she previously worked for The Post and Courier’s Columbia bureau.
