Lawsuit in Columbia store’s alleged negligence in double homicide settles for $1 million

Relatives of a man killed in an execution-style slaying in a parking lot will get $1 million from the insurer of a Columbia-area convenience store where the killing took place.

A civil lawsuit in state court in the case alleged negligence by an on-duty store clerk at Motor City Market, 5601 Fairfield Rd., who purportedly sold alcohol to two drunk men, both of whom he saw carried guns. The clerk then failed to call police when he observed successive situations develop that endangered the lives of peaceful customers.

The alleged shooter, James Toatley, 33, is being held in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center without bond. He is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

According to evidence in the case, Toatley shot and killed two men sitting in a car, Corey Smith and Curtis Dinkins, during an argument.

Dick Harpootlian, the attorney who with attorney Phil Barber represents Smith’s family, said there was doubt the owner of Motor City Market’s would be able to pay any large award and its insurer, State Farm, “while not admitting liability or responsibility,” was paying $1 million to Smith’s family.

Judge Jocelyn Newman signed the order approving settlement in late June.

Even though a civil case has been settled, the criminal case is still pending.

Toatley was arrested by a Richland County sheriff’s and U.S. Marshals task force in North Charleston two months after the Dec. 19, 2021, killings at the convenience store.

At the time of the double homicide, Toatley was a fugitive, being sought by federal authorities because he had disappeared while on supervised release after serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison for drug trafficking, according to court records. Marsha

Toatley, who was released from federal prison in April 2020, was also wanted by the Richland County sheriff’s department on car theft and domestic violence charges, according to court records.

Harpootlian said the family would like 5th Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson to explain why he is not calling for the death penalty in this case.

“Two people were killed, and under South Carolina’s capital punishment law, that meets the criteria for the death penalty,” said Harpootlian, a former prosecutor who has tried death penalty cases.

Harpootlian said evidence in the case is clear-cut because events leading up to the shooting, and the shooting itself, were captured on the store’s multiple video cameras.

In an interview, Gipson — chief prosecutor in Richland and Kershaw counties — said no final decision has been made on whether to seek the death penalty but he indicated there were numerous obstacles to doing so.

“Before we make a decision, we will, number one, look at the facts and than make a determination as to whether the death penalty is the appropriate remedy, and two, whether it is something that would result in a likely conviction,” Gipson said.

“Our biggest concern,” Gipson said, “is to get a conviction.”

In any case, Gipson said, there is currently no mechanism for putting condemned killers to death because the state has been unable to buy the drugs for lethal injection for years, and executions by the state’s two other methods — firing squad and electric chair — are on hold while the S.C. Supreme Court considers whether the those methods are lawful under the state constitution.

Also, if a killer is condemned to death after a jury trial, that triggers successive appeals that may take an additional 15 or 20 years. “The closure that a family seeks, they generally will not have,” Gipson said. “And we have over 180 pending murders that we’re working on.”