A Sumter County man who killed a 72-year-old woman in her New Zion home during a violent crime spree in Dec. 2022 has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Mar. 5 that Jason Tyrell Ford pleaded guilty to the murder of Mae Edith Burgess, who was shot and killed in her home on Dec. 13, 2022.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Ford stole a vehicle in Sumter County before driving to Burgess’s home in New Zion, where she was shot and killed during the crime.
“This case is especially heartbreaking because Ford stole a car in Sumter County, then drove to Ms. Burgess’s home and killed her as she sat down for dinner, just so he could steal her car,” Wilson said in a statement. “He then continued his crime spree when he tried to kill another man in Sumter County, but thankfully that man survived.”
Circuit Court Judge Kirk Griffin sentenced Ford to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder charge.
Ford also pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary, receiving a 30-year sentence, as well as grand larceny and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He received the maximum sentence of 10 years for the grand larceny charge.
Authorities said Ford still faces attempted murder and grand larceny of a vehicle charges in Sumter County. Those charges remain pending.
The case had been scheduled to go to trial Apr. 13 before Ford entered the guilty plea.
Assistant Attorney General Angela McCall-Tanner prosecuted the case for the state through the Attorney General’s Violent Crime Case Reduction Unit, which was created to help reduce case backlogs across the state, particularly in rural counties.
The Clarendon County Sheriff’s Office, Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigated the case.
Ford was arrested in December 2022 after investigators linked him to Burgess’s killing during a multi-agency investigation. Authorities said the investigation began when Ford attempted to steal a vehicle at gunpoint in Sumter County before fleeing in Burgess’s silver Toyota Corolla.
Sumter County deputies traced the vehicle’s registration back to Burgess and contacted Clarendon County deputies, who went to her New Zion home and discovered her body.
At the time of Ford’s arrest, Clarendon County Sheriff Tim Baxley said Burgess had been shot twice and described the killing as a random act of violence.
Family members remembered Burgess as a kind and generous woman whose loss devastated those closest to her.
“My aunt was an angel,” her nephew, Anthony McElveen, told WIS News 10 in 2022. “Soon as she walked in a room, you could just feel her presence.”
Relatives said Burgess had a reputation for helping others and was a central figure in her family.
“She was strong-willed but very kind,” her brother-in-law, Adrian Ridgill, also told the station. “She always looked to help others in her own way.”
