S.C. 'skinhead' said God told him to kill sex offenders, wanted conviction tossed out

An unapologetic white supremacist serving three life sentences for killing two people in 2013 was denied a new trial Friday. He claimed God told him to kill sex offenders.

Jeremy Moody, 34, of Union County, pleaded guilty in May 2014 to two counts of murder, burglary, kidnapping and other charges. He later filed a post conviction relief lawsuit claiming his court-appointed lawyers should have done more in the case to explore his mental illness.

Moody asked for the convictions to be tossed out.

A hearing was held in April in York at the Moss Justice Center. Judge Thomas Cooper dismissed the lawsuit Friday, said Dorothy Moore, spokesperson for the S.C. Attorney General’s Office who argued Moody had competent counsel and should stay in prison for the rest of his life.

Kevin Brackett, 16th Circuit solicitor who prosecuted Moody, called the decision the right one.

“Mr. Moody is right where he belongs,” Brackett said.

Moody and wife Christine each pleaded guilty to the killings of Charles and Gretchen Parker, just over the border from York County, and said they would do it again. Moody told police if he hadn’t been caught, he would have kept killing. Charles Parker had been registered as a sex offender.

At the time of the 2014 trial, Jeremy Moody had “skinhead” tattoo across his throat and the words “white power” tattooed on the top of his bald head.

Both Moodys had mental illnesses, their lawyers said when each pleaded guilty at the same time in a hearing and aftermath that caught national attention because of the rants and taunts the couple made about being proud of their crimes.

This story was originally published June 16, 2017 at 8:32 PM with the headline "S.C. 'skinhead' said God told him to kill sex offenders, wanted conviction tossed out."