Loris man’s trial in 2012 execution-style shooting of a father and son begins in Conway

Attorneys agreed that a web of lies was involved in the killing of a Loris man and his son in 2012 for a $1 million insurance policy, but who spun that web was at dispute Tuesday during the start of a 24-year-old Horry County man’s trial.

Odom Bryant, 24, is charged with two counts of murder in the Aug. 19, 2012, shooting deaths of 66-year-old Amos Hatfield and his 40-year-old son, Thomas “Tommy” Howard Hatfield.

A jury of four men and 10 women, including two alternates, were selected Tuesday morning to preside over Bryant’s case this week in Conway.

Bryant is one of three people who were charged in connection with the double slaying inside a doublewide mobile home at 1163 Red Bluff Road.

In June, Sandy Lee Locklear, 43, of Tabor City, N.C., who was married to Amos Hatfield, was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison following a two-week trial.

Nehemiah James Evans, 30, of Nichols, also faces two counts of murder and his case will be adjudicated at a later date.

During opening statements Tuesday, Monica Wooten, an assistant 15th Circuit Solicitor, told jurors that Bryant wove a web of lies during the investigation of the men being shot execution-style in the back of the head through a pillow.

Video surveillance from a convenience store after the shootings showed Bryant with a .25-caliber pistol with a pearl handle that was stolen from Amos Hatfield’s home, Wooten said. But Bryant told authorities the gun, which was never found, was his and not the one gifted to Hatfield by a family member.

“This case is about lies. This case is about the defendant, Odom Bryant’s, lies. It’s about the web of lies he put together during the investigation of this case,” Wooten said.

Bryant also denied knowing Locklear at first other than doing yard work for her, Wooten said.

But after being questioned by police and presented with evidence, such as cellphone records and text messages, Wooten said Bryant admitted he knew the woman, who prosecutors said orchestrated the killings for a $1 million insurance policy.

“At this point the lies are so big and the web is fragile,” Wooten said. “The web just fell apart. The web of lies had broken down.”

But Dean Mureddu, Bryant’s attorney, told jurors that the lies came from Locklear, not Bryant, because he told police what happened and she set him up “as a mark.”

“Sandy Locklear murdered her husband, Amos Hatfield, and his son, Thomas Hatfield. Sandy Locklear killed the two Hatfields with a pistol. She killed these poor men in cold blood and she did it for the oldest reason in the world: money,” Mureddu said. “She tricked a lonely man into believing she loved him. She conned him into marrying her.”

“She tricked these two young men [Bryant and Evans] into putting themselves into a position where they would be accused of rape and where they would be accused of murder,” Mureddu said. “Odom is here today fighting for his life. ... He is here trying to free himself from a web of lies that Sandy Locklear put out there.”

Testimony is expected to continue this week.