In a courtroom, Stephen Andrew White admitted killing Erin Lee Thomas after a custody hearing in August 2024.

GREENWOOD, S.C. — A Laurens County man was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to running down and fatally shooting another man outside the Laurens County Courthouse after a child custody hearing.

Stephen Andrew White pleaded guilty April 20 to murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the death of 34-year-old Erin Lee Thomas of Woodruff. Circuit Judge Frank R. Addy Jr. sentenced White to 35 years on the murder charge and five more years on the weapon charge, to be served one after the other.

The killing happened Aug. 12, 2024, outside the courthouse at Hillcrest Square in Laurens, after a family court hearing involving White’s wife and a child she shared with Thomas. Prosecutors said the hearing itself did not erupt into a public fight. The people involved left the building and moved into the parking lot. White parted from his attorney, got into his vehicle and drove toward Thomas, who was standing beside his own vehicle some distance away, according to the prosecution account presented in court.

Thomas was struck by White’s vehicle and suffered severe injuries, including a broken leg and pelvis, prosecutors said. White then got out with a firearm and stood over Thomas while Thomas was disabled on the pavement. The first round misfired and jammed. White cleared the gun, chambered another round and shot Thomas in the head. Deputies responded to reports of shots fired at about 3:15 p.m. White discarded the weapon and surrendered to law enforcement at the scene.

Thomas was treated at the courthouse parking lot before he was flown from the scene for medical care. He died later at Greenville Memorial Hospital, and the Laurens County Coroner’s Office identified him as the man killed in the shooting. Early reports from the sheriff’s office described the attack as an isolated incident and said courthouse staff quickly secured both the parking lot and the building. Investigators did not report that any bystanders were shot or that White tried to leave the courthouse complex after the gunfire.

The case reached its end on the same day White’s trial had been set to begin. Instead of selecting a jury, White entered guilty pleas. Solicitor David M. Stumbo, Deputy Solicitor Jared Simmons and Assistant Solicitor Mary-Madison Driggers presented the case for the state. White was represented by 8th Circuit Public Defender Chelsea McNeill. The sentence sent White to the South Carolina Department of Corrections for four decades and closed the criminal case without a trial over the facts of the shooting.

McNeill told the court that White had learned he was not the biological father of a child he had been raising. She said “something inside him snapped” after that discovery. She also told the judge that White’s wife had disclosed an earlier affair with Thomas before the marriage and that White had chosen to forgive her. Prosecutors answered that White had learned about the child’s paternity roughly a year before the shooting, a point they used to argue the killing was not a sudden discovery inside the courthouse.

Stumbo called the attack “calculated and deeply personal” and said the courthouse was meant to be a place where families resolved disputes, not where a new tragedy began. He said White’s actions removed both Thomas and White from the life of an innocent child. His office also credited Investigator Christopher Oggenfuss of the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office and the prosecution team for securing the conviction and sentence. The solicitor said the case showed the cost of violence inside a family court dispute.

Thomas’ relatives described him in court as a father whose role in his child’s life mattered deeply. His grandmother, Kay McMahan Trotter, said fatherhood became his most important position in life. She said Thomas had provided financial help to White and White’s wife because he wanted his daughter to have a stable home. “Erin deserved gratitude, not a bullet,” Trotter said. Her statement gave the sentencing hearing a focus beyond the parking lot attack and back to the family left with the loss.

The case began as a courthouse emergency and ended as a guilty plea nearly 20 months later. White is now serving a 40-year sentence, and the public criminal proceedings ended with the April 20 judgment. The next steps are limited to prison processing and any post-conviction filings White may pursue under South Carolina law.

Author note: Last updated May 10, 2026.