MAN WHO KILLED WIFE ASSESSED CIVIL JUDGMENT

An Oconeean imprisoned for killing his wife now faces a steep civil penlty. A circuit judge this week ordered Lee Mikael Cawthon to pay the mother of Rebecca Murray Cawthon one million dollars. The award goes to Mrs. Cawthon’s mother, Lutrica Murray. Additionally, Judge Lawton McIntosh’s ruling orders Mr. Cawthon to pay his wife’s estate the sum of $100 thousand. In September, the husband was sentenced to 45 years after admitting that he shot his wife eight times and hid her body by stuffing it into a 55-gallon barrel at their home on the Welcome Church Road near Westminster.