Beaufort County man killed 7-year-old in 1998. He just broke into a stranger’s home, cops say

A man convicted in the death of a 7-year-old girl two decades ago was charged with burglary on Tuesday after Burton homeowners found him in their home, a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office news release says.

Roy Dean White, 47, of Burton, was charged with murder and criminal sexual conduct with a minor in the second degree in 1998 in connection with the death of his girlfriend’s daughter — 2nd-grader Kimberly “Kimi” Michelle Slattery, according to Beaufort County Court records and Beaufort Gazette articles from the time.

In a plea agreement in December 1999, White’s charges were changed to homicide by child abuse, according to a Beaufort Gazette article. White was 28-years-old at the time — the age Kimi would be today, if she were still alive.

White was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

He served 12 years, according to Dexter Lee, South Carolina Department of Corrections interim communications director. He was released in December 2011.

The sentence did not require him to register as a sex offender.

In September of this year, White ran away after he was found by the Burton homeowners, the Sheriff’s Office report says. A trail of women’s clothing and shoe impressions in the dirt led away from the home to White’s nearby residence on Adams Circle.

Capt. Bob Bromage, spokesman for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, said he was unable to give information about the type of clothing found.

White was being held in Beaufort County Detention Center on Thursday. If convicted, the burglary 1st degree charge carries a sentence of not less than 15 years and up to life in prison.

‘Brutal, horrible death’

Kimi’s mother, Jennifer Slattery, told police she returned home from work in Burton on Sunday, Feb. 22, 1998, to find her 7-year-old daughter unresponsive. She called 911 and neighbors, who tried to revive Kimi.

White was charged the next day in Kimi’s death.

“The senseless, brutal, horrible death of this sweet little girl was a result of something not natural,” Beaufort County’s then-Coroner Curt Copeland told The Island Packet at the time of White’s arrest.

White’s attorney at the time, Eve Fleming of the Public Defender’s Office, painted a different picture at White’s sentencing hearing.

“Roy is not evil but very shortsighted,” Fleming is quoted as saying in a Beaufort Gazette article. “The child was at risk in so many ways every second she was not in school. If (as much) interest (had been) shown in her life as has been in her death, she’d be alive today.”

Kimi’s obituary printed in The Beaufort Gazette said she had been a student at Shell Point Elementary School.

“She was on the principal’s list for straight A’s, she received several reading and computer awards and was in Girl Scout Troop No. 703,” the obituary says.

The child’s first-grade teacher told the newspaper at the time of her death, “Kimberly was so loving you just couldn’t say enough about her. Her mother was so proud of her. She was a bright kid, and she would have a had a wonderful future.”

Officials with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor’s Office both said they were unable to comment on White’s criminal history.

Court records were not readily available.

This story was originally published October 18, 2018 at 10:12 AM.