Man accused of strangling woman found in car refuses to attend bond hearing

MONCKS CORNER -- A man charged with murder in the strangulation death of a 21-year-old Tennessee woman did not have a bond hearing Monday because he was fighting with jailers and refusing to attend, authorities said.

James Randall Carpenter, 33, had been taken into custody Sunday after Jasmine Marrone’s body was found in the back seat of a car at a Summerville gas station.

Police had been called to a Shell gas station on North Main Street at 7:30 a.m. Sunday for a report of an intoxicated man. When officers arrived, they found a man who appeared to be intoxicated man with blood on his clothing. After running a records check and learning he was wanted out-of-state for an outstanding warrant, they looked inside his car and found Marrone’s body under a blanket, Summerville Police Capt. Jon Rogers said.

An autopsy determined she had been strangled and Carpenter was charged with murder.

Though a South Carolina magistrate cannot, by law, set bond on a murder charge, bond hearings are held for murder suspects so they can see a judge soon after being arrested. A hearing had been scheduled for Carpenter Monday night at 7 p.m. in a courtroom at the Hill-Finklea Detention Center.

Reporters were on hand for the hearing, as were investigators and family members, but Carpenter refused to attend and fought with deputies who were trying to escort him to the hearing.

At first, reporters were told the hearing was going to be postponed until 8 a.m. Tuesday, but a jailer later announced the hearing would be postponed indefinitely.