Michael Pearson (SC)

The Gibbons Robbery

At approximately 6:15 a.m. on the morning of May 15, 2010, Edward “Slick” Gibbons, a prominent businessman and influential member of the local Manning community, was assaulted and robbed by three individuals who had been hiding in Gibbons’ garage while waiting for him to come home. The perpetrators attacked Gibbons, forced him to the carport floor, and wrapped duct tape around his head. Gibbons’ wallet and keys were taken. The robbers fled the scene in Gibbons’ 1987 Chevrolet El Camino, which was later found abandoned on the side of the road approximately a mile and a half from Gibbons’ residence.

The Investigation

As a result of the Clarendon County Sheriff’s Department (CCSD) investigation, DNA was discovered on the duct tape, and a palm and thumbprint were lifted from the back of Gibbons’ El Camino. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) analyzed the DNA swabs and concluded that it was a match for Victor Weldon. The latent prints were entered into the FBI’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), a national biometric database maintained by the FBI for identifying individuals using fingerprints. Although Michael Pearson’s fingerprints were already in the FBI’s fingerprint database, the system did not identify the submitted thumbprint as belonging to Mr. Pearson. A Sumter Police Department (SPD) officer then compared the thumbprint to “persons of interest” and concluded it was a match to Michael Pearson. The palm print was determined not to be from Pearson.

The Trail

Michael Pearson was arrested because of the thumbprint match and Victor Weldon was arrested based on DNA on the duct tape.  Both men were tried together in 2012. Although the primary evidence against them was the DNA and thumbprint identification, prosecutors also argued the men knew each other because of an overlap in their respective participation in a vocational rehab job training program. Both men consistently denied knowing one another.

On May 18, 2012, the Clarendon County jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts – armed robbery, 1st degree burglary, kidnapping, grand larceny, and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Pearson and Weldon were both given combined sentences of sixty years.

Post Conviction Proceedings

Pearson appealed his conviction to the SC Court of Appeals (SCCA).  On July 30, 2014, the SCCA reversed Pearson’s convictions and sentences on insufficiency of the evidence grounds. The State appealed the decision of the SCCA, and the SC Supreme Court (SCSC) unfortunately reinstated the convictions and sentences. Weldon’s initial appeal was unsuccessful. However, in 2016, he filed a Post Conviction Relief Application, which, after much litigation, resulted in Weldon being granted a new trial in 2022.

2023 Revelations

In January of 2023, while Weldon was awaiting his new trial, the CCSD investigator who initially investigated the 2010 robbery came to see Weldon, asking about his plans for a new trial. Weldon informed the investigator he planned to proceed with the new trial. Not long after that meeting, Weldon’s attorney presented Weldon with a negotiated plea offer for a substantially reduced sentence conditioned upon Weldon providing full, truthful information about the robbery. Per that agreement, the determination of whether Weldon was being truthful was left to the discretion of the prosecution to decide.

During the ensuing interrogations, including passing a polygraph test, Weldon admitted to his participation in the robbery, named his compatriots, and consistently denied that Pearson had anything to do with the robbery. Following the interviews and polygraph, in June of 2023, Weldon was allowed to plead guilty to armed robbery, 1st degree burglary, and grand larceny in return for the eighteen (18) year sentence he was promised. Weldon is scheduled for release in November 2025.

Continued Incarceration

Despite Weldon having received a dramatic reduction in his sentence for providing truthful information that included establishing Pearson’s innocence, Pearson also passing a SLED-administered polygraph while proclaiming his innocence, and a confession made by one of the other perpetrators, Pearson remains in prison serving his 2012-imposed original sixty-year sentence. We are committed to bringing Mr. Pearson home to freedom as soon as possible.

* The work on this case was funded in part by a grant from the SC Bar Foundation.