STATE NEWS IN BRIEF

COLUMBIA

Tougher cockfighting penalty approved

A House subcommittee has passed a bill that would increase the criminal penalty for cockfighting.

Attorney General Henry McMaster testified in favor of the legislation, which would increase the penalty to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine and forfeiture of property used in connection with animal fighting.

Currently, cockfighting is a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days in jail or a $100 fine.

The bill passed on a 3-1 vote and now goes to the full Judiciary.

CLEMSON

Student charged with firearm possession

A Clemson University student has been charged with having two rifles on campus, the school said Friday.

Andrew H. Hawkins, 19, of Atlanta, Ga., was arrested Monday and charged with firearm possession, a felony, of a U.S. M-1 carbine and Remington Model 700 rifle, police said. He told authorities he had used one of them for hunting.

Police found the rifles at an on-campus apartment. Hawkins, who lives in a dormitory, apparently stored them there to hide them, police said.

Only law enforcement are permitted to have weapons on campus.

Hawkins was released and placed on interim suspension until a university judicial hearing, the school said.

AIKEN

Students plead guilty to threatening teacher

Two Aiken Middle School sixth-graders who threatened to slash their teacher with a knife have pleaded guilty and been placed under house arrest.

The 12-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy, whose names have not been released because they are juveniles, were also ordered to undergo a mental evaluation after they pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy Thursday.

The girl was angry at the teacher last month for disciplining one of her friends. She talked to the boy at lunch. He had a knife, and the pair discussed cutting the teacher's throat, prosecutor Serena McDaniel said.

Other students heard the pair talking about the attack and told school officials.

The boy and girl had been in a juvenile prison since the March 22 incident.

McDaniel said nearly a month behind bars was enough to teach them a lesson and asked for house arrest.

Family Court Judge Dale Gable agreed, telling the children they would be arrested if police found them in public without their parents or a legal guardian older than 21. The boy and girl have to appear before the judge again before the case is finished.

BISHOPVILLE

Lee County school superintendent leaves

Lee County school superintendent Bill Townes has left the position after the school board voted 6-1 to terminate his contract.

A termination agreement valued at $115,000 followed the vote Thursday night.

Townes was hired in 1996 to lead a school district that had been designated as "impaired" by the state Education Department.

The board voted 6-1 to hire former assistant superintendent Lloyd Hunter as interim superintendent. Hunter had been serving as a consultant.

Townes will be on paid administrative leave through the end of the year and is being paid an additional $50,000 as part of the agreement.

School board chairwoman Deloris Wright read a statement that the agreement was reached as a result of Townes' desire to leave the district for personal reasons.

Lee County Council has been in discussion with the school board on how to handle the schools' projected deficit, which the county says could be $2 million.

GREENVILLE

Man charged in hammer beating death

A 28-year-old man has been charged with murder after his roommate was found beaten with a hammer.

Kenneth DeWayne Nichols met William Allan Smith at a nightclub several days before he was killed, and Smith invited Nichols to live in his home, Greenville police spokesman Lt. Mike Gambrell said.

Nichols was already in the Greenville County jail on unrelated charges when investigators linked him to the killing, Gambrell said.

The hammer used in the slaying was found in a motel, Gambrell said.

Neighbors called police last month after Smith, 47, had not been seen for several days. One of them looked in his windows and said his house had been ransacked, police said.

FLORENCE

Boy, 12, pleads guilty to taking gun to school

A 12-year-old boy who brought a loaded gun to an elementary school last month and planned to shoot the principal has pleaded guilty.

The fifth-grader, whose name has not been released because he is a juvenile, was in court last week and will be sentenced in a few months after an extensive mental evaluation, according to court officials.

Two other students, both 12 years old, were charged with conspiracy. One pleaded guilty Thursday and will be sentenced after a mental evaluation, while the other had a hearing postponed until May because he did not have a lawyer, Family Court Judge A.E. Morehead III said.

The boy with the gun was angry at the principal at Savannah Grove Elementary School for disciplining him and discussed the shooting with his friends, authorities said.

When the boy showed his friends the gun, they told a teacher, who evacuated the room and took the gun, investigators said.

Deputies found a drawing inside the armed boy's backpack showing two Grim Reapers over a mangled body, and he told them the body was the principal.