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Court upholds death sentence in guard's slaying
Posted: 07.26.2010 at 11:33 AM
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Ron O'Neal Finklea

 / Source: SCDC
Photo

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolina's highest court has upheld the death sentence for a man convicted of shooting a security guard and setting him on fire while trying to rob an ATM.

The state Supreme Court on Monday said it found no errors in the conviction and sentence of 36-year-old Ron O'Neal Finklea.

Finklea was sent to death row in September 2007 after a Lexington County jury found him guilty in the death of 56-year-old Walter Sykes.

Prosecutors say Finklea first shot Sykes, then surveillance video from the plant showed Sykes run from the building, engulfed in flames, before collapsing on the front lawn.

Authorities said Finklea was trying to rob an ATM at the Solectron plant in Springdale in August 2003.

(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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