A 35-year-old Pinewood man sentenced in 2011 to 22 years for attempted murder and first-degree burglary is seeking post-conviction relief in 3rd Circuit Court.
Eric Quentil Tindal appeared before Circuit Court Judge Tanya A. Gee in mid-November during a hearing in which he argued that his attorney's actions during his plea were inadequate and ineffective. He was represented by James Brian O'Connor during that plea.
Tindal was sentenced four years ago after pleading to breaking into the apartment of his former girlfriend and stabbing her multiple times on Thanksgiving Day in 2010. Both were transported to Clarendon Memorial Hospital and then airlifted to Columbia hospitals. Arrested upon his release Dec. 2, 2010, Tindal remained at the Clarendon County Detention Center until his plea in July 2011.
At his plea, 3rd Circuit solicitors told 3rd Circuit Judge Howard P. King that deputies with the Clarendon County Sheriff's Office responded to a home on Fleming Circle in Manning about 4 a.m. Thanksgiving Day after a woman called 911 about a domestic complaint.
Deputy Randy O. Davis Jr. kicked in the door after he reported hearing screaming from inside the home. Davis
reportedly found Tindal lying on a bed with a knife sticking out of his abdomen and a woman lying on the floor covered in blood.
The woman told authorities while being transported to Clarendon Memorial Hospital that she got off work in Sumter about 3 a.m. that day and was walking down the hallway of her apartment when she noticed movement inside her children's bedroom. She said Tindal then charged her with a knife, cutting and stabbing her repeatedly. She ultimately got the knife from Tindal and stabbed him herself.
Gee's decision on the post-conviction relief application has no deadline. Post-conviction relief provides convicted defendants with a way to appeal their convictions by attacking not the substance of the trial or plea itself, but rather an attorney's representation.
Defendants must show that but for the attorney's actions, he or she would not have pled guilty or would not have been found guilty by a jury of his or her peers.
Post-conviction relief applications are challenged by the state Attorney General's Office.
