A North Charleston couple pleaded guilty Thursday to a slew of charges, saying meth addictions led them to a life of crime that ended only when authorities arrested them in connection with a 2015 murder.
Jason Evan Down, 48, will spend 18 years in prison before registering as a sex offender, while his wife, 44-year-old Christina Alderman, will serve 15 years in connection with two separate cases involving sexual exploitation of a minor and the slaying and dismembering of a Bramberg County father.
They offered little explanation for shooting Charles Bishop in September 2015 but said they'd been scared he would hurt Alderman.
"This is nothing short of a nightmare," Down told Judge Dennis Markley. "Then I became the nightmare, out of fear."
Authorities believe Bishop had paid Alderman for sex and met up with her. Down shot him in the head, and the pair dismembered his body before scattering bags of remains, bedding and latex gloves along a dirt road near Awendaw in Charleston County.
Bishop's mother called police when she and his two children, then 10 and 12 years old, found his home empty and his motorcycle gone.
In November 2017, Bishop's phone records and DNA found with his body led investigators to the couple, who claimed Down had shot Bishop to protect Alderman.
Alderman, 44, and Down, 48, were each charged with murder, desecration of human remains, possession of a firearm during a violent crime, possession of cocaine and distribution of methamphetamine. They've remained behind bars ever since.
As authorities searched their home for more evidence, they found videos that led to more charges: two first-degree counts of sexual exploitation of a minor for each of them, plus kidnapping and promotion of the prostitution of a minor for Down.
The couple had set up cameras in a bathroom and bedroom of their home, which captured footage of them insisting that a preteen girl undress for a modeling job, according to court records. Another video showed Down groping the child and trapping her in a room as she begged to be released.
"For $140, we could have all sorts of fun," the camera recorded Down saying.
Down pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, kidnapping, desecration of human remains and third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Alderman pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder, desecration of human remains and sexual exploitation of a minor.
Both victims' families had been involved in the plea deal, attorneys said.
"This ultimately killed (our mother)," Bishop's sister told the pair. "I want to forgive you ... but I look in his children's eyes every day and see the damage you did."