Mother takes on prison system

SUMMERVILLE -- When Sandra Carter got a phone call that her son Justin had been murdered in prison, it didn't make sense.

His criminal record wasn't violent, and he was supposed to be released in a matter of weeks. She couldn't imagine why he was housed near one of South Carolina's most violent criminals who stabbed Justin more than a dozen times with a jailhouse shank.

But Justin's killer was no stranger to hair-trigger violence. Kenneth Henry Justus had committed two murders in the Upstate, earning him life behind bars.

Afterward, Carter vowed to take on the Department of Corrections for housing her 22-year-old son in harm's way at Lieber Correctional Institution, near Ridgeville. Last month, her prayers were answered but only in part.

Carter agreed to a $47,500 out-of-court settlement to cover the loss of her son. There was no admission of wrong-doing by prison officials and no promise that housing-assignment practices would change.

But Carter said she's pushing to get administrators to look beyond their regulations and at the potential dangers of housing the vicious near the non-violent.

"It's not a big settlement," she said. "But they know they screwed up."

Carter's son, who went by his birth name of Justin Bregenzer, was more of a petty thief. He'd broken into cars in Mount Pleasant and, after messing up in a shock incarceration program, was ordered to finish out his sentence as a youthful offender in the Department of Corrections. His problems were compounded when he and another inmate ran away from trash detail and stole a car. By running off, Bregenzer was now classified as an escapee and got time added on.

Exactly why Justus, 42, attacked Bregenzer so violently never has been revealed. What is known is that in late July 2005, Bregenzer was found stabbed multiple times in his cell in the B-Wing of the prison's Edisto Unit. He was dead before medical personnel could do anything to save him. A blood trail pointed to Justus.

Carter received the news of her son's death while she was traveling across the country via car and camper. She and her husband made it back to South Carolina from New Mexico in about 36 hours to spread her son's ashes into the wind at the Morris Island Lighthouse.

For months afterward, the case lingered and Carter tried to get on with her life. Today, she works at a loan company and concentrates on her husband and two other children. But the memories of the murder came back strong last year when Justus said he would plead guilty to Bregenzer's slaying and wanted the death penalty as well.

"I truly believe this punishment is the only just punishment for the crime I've committed," Justus, now a three-time killer, wrote in a note passed to Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein.

Dorchester Solicitor David Pascoe said Justus deserved to die because the rule of law mandated it, not because he was requesting a death sentence.

"A third life sentence should not be an option," he said. Goodstein granted the wish, sending Justus to Death Row.

Meanwhile, Carter's civil suit reached the Dorchester County trial docket last month where the out-of-court settlement was reached. Attorney Chris Murphy, who represented the Department of Corrections, said there was no evidence of wrong-doing because the men's conduct had been good beforehand and because their records had classified their housing as minimum custody but in maximum security.

He also said the two inmates had been friendly for months, and that the attack could not have been predicted by an understaffed jail system.

But Carter's attorney, Stephen Goldberg, said housing Bregenzer near Justus was flawed from the start. "It was a bureaucratic decision," he said, "as opposed to a personal decision."

Carter said she would do whatever she could to make people aware that officials have a duty to house inmates safely. She plans to write letters and blast the Internet about her son's case. She doesn't know if her efforts will lead anywhere but thinks it's worth a try.

"One candle in the night projects a whole bright light," she said.

Reach Schuyler Kropf at 937-5551 or skropf@postandcourier.com.