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https://scdailygazette.com/2025/11/14/death-row-inmate-set-to-become-3rd- in-sc-executed-by-firing-squad/

Death row inmate becomes 3rd in SC executed by firing squad

Stephen Bryant pleaded guilty to killing three people during a crime spree
in 2004

By:Skylar Laird
-
November 14, 2025 3:22 pm

EditorrCOs note: This article has been updated with the execution.

COLUMBIA rCo A Sumter County man who killed three during a crime spree 21 years ago became the third person executed in South Carolina by firing
squad.

Stephen Bryant was the fifth person executed in South Carolina this year
and the seventh since the process resumed in September 2024. Bryant
pleaded guilty in 2008 to fatally shooting three people during a string of burglaries.

The 44-year-old was declared dead at 6:05 p.m. He gave no last words.

Nationwide, 42 people have been executed this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

BryantrCOs attorneys made a single final appeal to attempt to halt his execution, arguing lower courts never heard evidence that he suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. The state Supreme Court rejected that argument, allowing his execution to go ahead. Unlike in other executions, BryantrCOs attorneys did not appeal that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

As expected, Gov. Henry McMaster chose not to commute BryantrCOs sentence to life in prison. No South Carolina governor has done so in at least the
last half-century. This time, BryantrCOs attorneys didnrCOt even ask, but McMaster released a denial anyway.

Bryant opted to die by firing squad instead of lethal injection or electrocution, the other two methods allowed in state law. South Carolina
is now tied with Utah with the highest number of executions by firing
squad. Utah is also the only other state to execute an inmate that way
since the death penalty resumed nationwide in 1976.

Three members of victim Willard TietjenrCOs family held hands in the front
row of the witness room.

Beside them sat one of BryantrCOs attorneys, representatives for the 3rd Circuit SolicitorrCOs Office and the Sumter County SheriffrCOs Department, said prisons spokeswoman Chrysti Shain.

Like the other inmates executed by firing squad, BryantrCOs legs and arms
were strapped down. He wore a black jumpsuit and mittens over his hands. A sling around his chin restricted his head movement, media witnesses said.

Bryant did not seem to react to anything happening in the room. After
glancing at the witnesses, Bryant kept his attention ahead of himself, his breathing normal. Guards placed a hood over BryantrCOs head just after 6
p.m. About a minute later, they raised the shade that separates the room
where the marksmen stand from the death chamber.

The marksmen fired at 6:02 p.m.

A small, white target with a red bullseye affixed to BryantrCOs chest flew
off with the impact, witnesses said. He appeared to take several more
shallow breaths, then spasmed once. A doctor spent about a minute
examining Bryant before declaring him dead, witnesses said.

For his last meal, Bryant requested Asian food, Shain said. He had spicy
mixed seafood stir fry over rice, fried fish over rice, two egg rolls,
three stuffed shrimp, duck in soy sauce, two Zero candy bars, German
chocolate cake and two Pepsis. Bryant ate his last meal Wednesday evening.

BryantrCOs final wish was for no one in need to face the same rejection he
did when he sought help for his mental health but was denied care because
he couldnrCOt pay for it, his attorney, Bo King, said in a statement.

rCLThat is consistent with the man we knew, who showed grace and courage in forgiving his family and great love for those in and outside of his
prison,rCY King said in the statement. rCLWe will remember his unlikely friendships, his fierce protectiveness, and his love for nature, the
water, and the world. We will miss him.rCY

The crimes
Bryant was still on probation following three years in prison for
attempted burglary when his deadly crime spree started Oct. 5, 2004, with
a Sumter County home robbery. His plans, however, began before that,
attorneys argued during his 2008 sentencing hearing.

For several days, Bryant drove his blue-and-white pickup truck around
rural Sumter County, approaching isolated homes and spinning tales to
anyone who answered the door when he knocked.

On Oct. 4, Bryant came to the home of Tom Dennis, which sat on several
hundred acres of property far back from the road. Bryant told Dennis his brother stole his pickup truck and he needed help getting it out of a
ditch, Dennis testified in court.

Dennis helped Bryant out and thought little of the interaction. The next
day, Bryant returned to rob the house after Dennis left to attend
ClemsonrCOs homecoming football game. When Dennis went out to his office in
an adjoining building the next morning, he discovered someone had stolen
his laptop, briefcase and bag of money.

Bryant repeated his method three days later with James Ammons, another
rural homeowner. That time, Bryant took only AmmonsrCO .40-caliber semiautomatic rifle and the shells Ammons kept on the nightstand.

Over the following days, Bryant used that gun to shoot four people,
killing three.

The first came later that same day. Bryant went out to a popular fishing
spot along the Wateree River. He walked up and down the Richland County
side of the river, where Clinton Brown was fishing.

After a brief conversation, Bryant walked away. A few moments later, Brown felt a shot in his back, he testified in court. When he turned around,
Bryant was already gone, he said.

Brown drove himself to the hospital, where he stayed for nine days but survived the gunshot wound. Brown died in 2017, at the age of 69.

The next day, Bryant went to his friend Cliff GaineyrCOs house to smoke marijuana and drink some beers, Bryant said in a later statement to
police. When the beers ran out, Bryant drove the two of them to a nearby convenience store, where security video showed Gainey entering the store,
then returning to BryantrCOs truck parked outside, according to court
records.

Bryant drove around for a while, until Gainey asked him to pull over so he could rCLtake a leak,rCY Bryant told police. In separate statements, Bryant told police he thought Gainey was taking a knife out of his waistband,
then that he thought Gainey was making sexual advances toward him.

Regardless of what happened, Bryant shot Gainey three times, he said.

rCLI donrCOt know exactly why I shot Cliff,rCY Bryant later said in a statement
to police. rCLOnly thing I can (think) is his actions brought back a bad memory and I felt scared.rCY

Bryant remembered rCLsitting on my knees crying for him because he was a friend,rCY police testified Bryant told them. When a passerby pulled up, Bryant got back in his truck and fled, he later told police.

Bryant went back to GaineyrCOs house and took all the electronics from the living room, along with a fish tank from his bedroom. At some point,
Bryant started a fire, in what he claimed was an accident but prosecutors
said was an act of arson.

Two days later, on Oct. 11, Bryant killed 62-year-old Willard Tietjen, who friends and family called TJ.

Bryant had come to TietjenrCOs house several days earlier, claiming he
needed to see TietjenrCOs phone book to try and track down a friendrCOs phone number. Tietjen helped, and Bryant left without incident, TietjenrCOs wife, Millard Tietjen, testified.

When he returned, Bryant said he told Tietjen his truck had overheated. Tietjen invited him in and began to talk about religion before becoming hostile, Bryant told police. Bryant shot him nine times, an autopsy
showed.

Bryant stayed in TietjenrCOs house long after killing him. He smoked TietjenrCOs cigarettes and used his computer. He took TietjenrCOs Masonic ring off his finger and cleaned off the blood in the sink. He rearranged the furniture and lit candles over TietjenrCOs body, police testified.

rCLHe was there for hours, enjoying his work, admiring what he had done,rCY solicitor Kelly Jackson told the judge during his trial.

When TietjenrCOs wife and daughter called to check on him, Bryant answered
his cellphone, calling himself rCLthe prowlerrCY and telling the women he killed Tietjen, the victimrCOs relatives testified in court.

Bryant also burned TietjenrCOs eyes with a lit cigarette, set his goatee on fire and used TietjenrCOs blood to write messages on the wall for police, according to court documents.

rCLVictim number four in two weeks, catch me if you can,rCY Bryant wrote on one wall, some of the letters in blood. On another was the word rCLcatch,rCY also in blood, police testified.

BryantrCOs note seemed to suggest he already planned to kill again, prosecutors argued. Two days later, around 4 a.m., he picked up Chris
Burgess at a gas station, loaded his bicycle into the back of his pickup
truck and drove off.

A hunter found BurgessrCO body on the side of the road, shot three times, in
a similar manner to Gaines, investigators testified.

rCLIt was over for me,rCY Bryant told police he was thinking at the time.

Police arrested Bryant later that day. After initially trying to blame
someone else, he confessed to the police, according to court testimony.

During his time in jail, Bryant racked up more charges for threatening a detention officer and severely beating another. Bryant pleaded guilty to
all the charges he faced.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty for TietjenrCOs killing because BryantrCOs theft of jewelry and other items from the house qualified as an aggravating offense, according to court records. He received life
sentences for the other slayings.

The victims
Most mornings, Bob Summers stopped by his friend TietjenrCOs house for
coffee, he testified during BryantrCOs sentencing hearing. The morning of TietjenrCOs death, Summers called to tell Tietjen a joke, as he often did.

Tietjen liked jokes, and he told good ones, Summers said. Summers liked to give him gag gifts, and he planned to give Tietjen a tie that looked like
a bottle of Tabasco hot sauce before his death, he said.

Tietjen worked for the Air Force for 23 years, maintaining radar systems,
his wife of 39 years testified. After retiring in 1985, he worked at
hardware and electronics stores before eventually going into the insurance business, she said.

Tietjen was active in the local Masonic Lodge, and he was a Shriner,
including driving a buggy he kept in the basement every time a parade
happened in the area, she said.

When asked if she understood that Bryant could be put to death for killing
her husband, Millard Tietjen told defense attorneys she was OK with that.

rCLI canrCOt say it would make it any better, but I feel he deserves a punishment because he made the choice to do what he did,rCY she said during the 2008 hearing.

Chris Gainey was 14 when Bryant shot his dad, Cliff Gainey, to death by
the side of a road. During the sentencing hearing, he recalled fishing
with his dad and watching movies, though he added he didnrCOt remember much else about their time together.

rCLThe only thing I really remember, he used to always comment on me being rCo just always said I look just like him,rCY Chris Gainey testified. rCLMy mama still says the same thing.rCY

Chris BurgessrCO family missed him every day, his mother, Christine Burgess, wrote in a letter read out loud in court.

rCLWe all loved him dearly,rCY the letter said. rCLThe pain and suffering of this family will never go away.rCY

Stephen Bryant
In the months leading up to the killings, Bryant tried to get help for his deteriorating mental state, his aunt and grandmother told a judge.

That August, two months before his crime spree, Bryant sat down with his grandmother and aunt to ask for help. At his grandmotherrCOs home, he
clenched his hands on her glass-top coffee table, causing the whole table
to shake, she recalled during his 2008 trial.

Bryant told the two about how his grandfather, his uncle and his older half-brother sexually and physically abused him throughout his childhood.

rCLHe looked like he was being tortured,rCY his aunt, Terry Lee Bryant Caulder, testified during his trial. rCLItrCOs like his soul was just laid wide open. In his eyes, you could see he was hurting and suffering and he
was living the abuse over again as it was coming out, what he was telling us.rCY

His grandmother, Shirley Freeman, suggested Bryant call a sexual abuse hotline, she said. Caulder found the number and handed the phone off to Bryant, who spoke to the person on the other end for a while, she
testified.

The hotline seemed to offer no resources. His probation officer referred
him to a nearby counseling center, but Bryant couldnrCOt afford to pay for
the services, so he left without getting help.

He couldnrCOt sleep on the nights he picked up his victims at gas stations.
He told police he remembered only bits and pieces of each incident, which experts testified could have been a symptom of his post-traumatic stress disorder, according to court records.

Bryant grew up in a troubled home, his attorneys have argued to multiple courts. His parents met and conceived him in a rehabilitation facility,
though neither got sober. His mother drank during her pregnancy with him,
she told attorneys during his appeals process.

Starting at the age of 17, he spent much of his life in and out of jail, always for non-violent offenses, defense attorneys said during his
sentencing hearing.

The trauma of his early life, combined with the developmental effects of
his motherrCOs drinking during her pregnancy, caused Bryant to snap and act outside his normal frame of mind, his attorneys argued during his appeals.

During his 17 years on death row, Bryant received two disciplinary
sanctions, one for fighting without a weapon in 2009, and one for
possessing a weapon in 2023, according to prison records.
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