“We are accepting your plea even though her pleas were not accepted,” stated Brande Fanara of the guilty plea in her mother's murder.

The plea came Friday from Demetrius Myshawn Pepper, 25, of 800 Rhett St., Greenville, who was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison without any possibility of parole in the March 2007 death of retired school teacher Ellie Halfacre.

“From the bottom of my heart for whatever it is worth I am sorry. It was not planned. If I could take it back I would. I apologize with all that is inside me. I'm sorry. There is not a day that goes by that I don't pray for your family, and I will continue to pray for you,” Pepper told the Halfacres during Friday's trial. “There are no excuses for what I did. I decided whatever sentence you wanted I would go for. I have asked God to forgive me and in your heart I hope you can forgive me. I am sorry. I know that won't change anything. If I had more to give I would, and I would keep giving.”

“I don't know what happened that day but it should never have happened. This is so hard,” said Demetrius Pepper's father Billy Pepper, as he broke down in sobs. “What my son did is inexcusable. The only person that can help him is God. He must now trust the Lord to direct his path.”

“This has destroyed both of our families,” said Demetrius Pepper's mother Mary White.

“I can't say what it is like. She was needlessly murdered. You can't imagine how we feel,” Leonard Halfacre told Circuit Judge Ernest Kinard, who grew up in the Jollystreet Road area with Halfacre.

Demetruis Pepper said he did not wake up the morning of March 31 to do wrong.

Pepper was not scheduled to work his job at a convenience store in Greenville. But his boss called him into work.

Pepper went to the store and shot his female boss in the face and took money from the store.

“He told me that he went in and the next thing he knew that his boss was laying on the ground,” describes Eighth Circuit Solicitor Jerry Peace. She was not killed.

Pepper then went in search of his father, who with other family members was at a Spring football game at the University of South Carolina, where one of his brothers was playing.

On the way to Columbia, Pepper's car broke down on I-26 near the 80 mile marker.

Interstate travelers called Highway Patrol reporting that Pepper's car had broken down and it appeared he was thumbing a ride as he walked along the interstate.

When he didn't get a ride, Pepper walked to the nearby home of Leonard and Ellie Halfacre.

Leonard Halfacre had been out doing farm work before making a trip to the Prosperity Jockey Lot.

The Halfacres had many knocks on their door due to motorists breaking down on the interstate through the years. When Pepper knocked at the door, Ellie Halfacre went to get the phone for him to make a call for help.

When she returned to the door, Pepper pulled a gun and forced his way into the house.

Peace said Pepper told her he wanted her car and she went to get the keys.

Noticing that Pepper was upset, Peace said, Halfacre asked him what was wrong and what she could do to help him.

As she was handing him the keys he shot her in the head. Taking the Halfacres' car to the Carolina game, Pepper tracked down his parents. Tearfully he told them what he had done and his parents called the University and Columbia police to report the murder and their son's involvement.

Sheriff Lee Foster says there were several cars at the Halfacres' with the keys already in them.

Ellie Halfacre had been recovering from back surgery, and her husband Leonard Halfacre called to check on her. When he did not get an answer, he called his daughter, Fanara, to check on her mother.

Fanara, with her children in the car, went to check on her mother.

She found her mother lying on the floor and assumed she had passed out and hit her head. Fanara made a frantic call to 911.

“The defendant should have to listen to this 911 tape every day for the rest of his life,” said Peace of the devastating tape.

Peace said as Fanara talks with dispatchers, she notices the car is gone and “oh, no the door was open.” As she looks around she finds the shell casing to the bullet that took her mother's life.

“I found her dead in her own home. She was so rudely taken,” cried Fanara.

“There is nothing I can say to bring Ellie back,” said Judge Kinard as he accepted the plea.

Kinard, despite growing up in the same community with the Halfacres and knowing the family, was able to accept the plea because it was a negotiated plea and the terms had already been set.

While Peace said emotionally this case is a “death penalty case,” for practical reasons and the emotions of the family, the prosecutors felt it was better to accept the plea than put them through a death penalty trial and years of appeals.

“Only 50 percent of those in death penalty cases are sentenced to death and 69 percent of those are appealed,” said Peace.

Kinard sentenced Pepper to life in prison without parole for murder. Pepper was also sentenced to a concurrent sentence of life for the burglary charge and to 30 years in prison for the armed robbery charge. A charge of kidnapping was included in the armed robbery sentence. Pepper was also sentenced to five years concurrently on charges of

grand larceny and

possession of a firearm during the commission of a

violent crime.

The sentences mean that Pepper should never be released from prison.

Public defender Charles Verner said that Pepper admitted to deputies that he committed the murder.

“He never denied it and would have plead months ago,” said Verner, adding the reason for the hold up in the sentencing was the Solicitor's Office's careful consideration of charging the death penalty in the case.

“He was a good kid and went to college,” said an emotional Verner, adding Pepper had no previous record. “He did not wake up intending to do wrong.”

“He knows he will be punished,” said Pepper's mother. “This has destroyed two families.”

“Nobody wins here. I have never seen a crime so useless,” said Foster, who went to church with Halfacre. “The family will carry this with them the rest of their lives.”

Pepper has not been to court on the Greenville charges and has 10 days to appeal Friday's conviction.