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Man,
mother plead not guilty in deadly Abbeville standoff
Steven
Bixby claims self-defense in slayings of two officers
December
10, 2003
By MISTY
EBEL
Index-Journal
staff writer
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| Steven Bixby, center, is
escorted Tuesday from a Greenwood Sheriff’s Department
car into the Greenwood County Courthouse for an
arraignment. Bixby, charged in the slayings of two law
officers during a standoff Monday, told reporters his
actions were in self-defense.
| A defiant Steven Bixby, one
of the men charged with killing two law officers during a
14-hour standoff Monday at his parents’ Abbeville home, has
pleaded not guilty and said he was acting in
self-defense.
“We didn’t do it – they started it,” Bixby
said. “If we can’t be any freer than that in this country, I’d
rather die.”
Bixby, 36, and mother Rita, 71, who pleaded
not guilty to related charges, were arraigned Tuesday
afternoon at the magistrate’s court in Greenwood
County.
Arthur Bixby, 74, Steven’s father, was also charged
in the slayings, but was in the intensive care unit of
Greenville Memorial Hospital for gunshot wounds received
during the standoff.
All three could face the death
penalty.
During a break in proceedings, Steven Bixby laid
the blame for Monday’s bloodshed in the hands of law
enforcement.
State Constable Donnie Ouzts and Abbeville
Deputy Danny Wilson were shot and killed at the Bixby home on
Union Church Road.
Bixby said Wilson did not have a
warrant. He claimed Wilson kicked down the door of the house
after it was closed on him.
Bixby pointed to standoffs
between government officials and armed citizens at Ruby Ridge,
Idaho and Waco, Texas as examples of the government taking
personal freedoms.
“I love this country – I just can’t
stand the bastards in it,” he said.
Bixby didn’t directly
answer a reporter’s question about whether he was a member of
a militia, but said, “Everybody is that agrees with the Second
Amendment of the Constitution.”
Bixby made several
references to the Constitution and elements of federal law to
support his claim that officers came to his home
illegally.
When Judge Joe Cantrell asked Bixby if he had
received and read warrants detailing the charges against him,
Bixby said he had not.
“I haven’t been able to read them
because after I gave myself up yesterday, I’ve been beaten up
by bureaucracy,” Bixby said. “My face was kicked, my ribs was
kicked.”
After officers removed him temporarily from the
courtroom, Bixby limped obviously when he returned, though
he’d shown no signs of injury when first entering the
courtroom.
Cantrell asked Bixby if he would like to have
the charges read to him and Bixby responded, “Right now I
don’t trust the system at all.”
Cantrell read the charges
anyway for the official record.
Steven and Arthur Bixby
both face two counts of murder and a charge of conspiracy to
commit murder.
The murder charges carry a sentence of 30
years to life in prison, with the possibility of the death
penalty. The conspiracy charge has a sentence of five years or
$5,000.
Rita Bixby was charged with accessory before the
fact to murder, conspiracy to commit murder and misprision of
a felony, which is failure to report the planning of a
crime.
The accessory to murder charge carries the same
penalty as a murder charge.
Sentencing for the misprision
charge is at the judge’s discretion.
Rita Bixby told
Cantrell that she did not know whether she would need a public
defender. Steven Bixby opted for a public defender.
Because
of the nature of the charges, the court did not have the
jurisdiction to set bond, so Cantrell denied bond and told the
defendants they would have to appeal to the circuit court to
set bond.
Misty Ebel covers education issues and
general assignments in Greenwood and the Lakelands. She can be
reached at 223-1811, ext. 3308, or: http://www.indexjournal.com/news/mebel@indexjournal.com
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