Seabrook man convicted of killing 70-year-old

From staff reports

A 46- year-old Seabrook man with a history of violent crimes is returning to prison for the strangling death of a 70- year-old Beaufort woman who hired him to do yard work.

Jermaine Lemonte Thurston pleaded guilty Monday in Beaufort Count General Sessions Court of murdering Theresa Coker in her home on Polk Street. Thurston was sentenced to 43 years in prison.

“Throughout his life, Jermaine Thurston has demonstrated a penchant from page A1 for violence that has only escalated,” said Hunter Swanson of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case.

“Nothing is more despicable than brutalizing a vulnerable person who trusted you.

Mr. Thurston’s conviction is a measure of justice for Theresa Coker and a measure of safety for our community.”

A property management worker found Coker dead on Oct. 9, 2019, when he clusive golf course and gated resort on a St. Helena Island property that he had an option to purchase, the Pine Island Plantation.

The plan sparked public outcry, as it contradicted the overlay’s purpose: to protect “culturally significant resources” found on the island, and to recognize St. Helena as a center for Gullah culture in Beaufort County.

Since then, a limited liability company purchased the property for $18 million and subdivided it into five parcels. Tropeano has referred to himself publicly as the property owner.

On April 10, the Land Use Committee voted 10-1 to recommend adopting new overlay language. Councilman Logan Cunningham was the lone holdout vote. The issue then advanced to County Council, which approved it 10-1. Cunningham again cast the sole no vote.

While those who supported the new language saw the vote as a victory, final adoption of the revised overlay is not a foregone conclusion.

Behind closed doors

A letter dated April 7 from Tropeano addressed to Beaufort County Council and obtained by The Post and Courier reveals a high level of cooperation between county administration and Tropeano with regard to the Pine Island property. Much, if not all, of this interaction has taken place outside of the public’s view.

“Over the last two years, my team has met with the Beaufort County administrator, county legal counsel, district councilperson and county staff over 50 times to determine the best use and development of Pine Island,” wrote Tropeano in the letter.

County Attorney Brittany Ward replied to a Post and Courier inquiry that posed a number of specific question about the statements made in Tropeano’s letter. While Ward declined to answer most of the questions, she did say that county administration provides developers feedback based on the county’s development guidelines.

“The size and scope of a project determines the number of meetings and amount of time staff spends helping a developer comply with the (Community Development Code), as well as other laws and regulations,” Ward added.

Because these interactions between the county and the developer are not public, it’s difficult to know how the county’s involvement in this initiative compares with any came to replace locks and door frames for the new tenant. After no one answered his knocks, he let himself into the house and discovered Coker’s partially nude body on a bedroom floor. She likely had been dead for several days. Blood smears were found in the bedroom and the kitchen, and her purse and jewelry appeared to have been rifled through. Coker’s Honda Accord also was missing. Thurston had only recently been released from prison. Though he lived in Seabrook, he had a girlfriend who lived in the city of Beaufort. He had been seen walking the streets around Polk Street in the days before Coker’s murder. Neighbors reported that Coker complained she had been harassed recently by a Black male asking to do yard work for her. They later saw a man fitting Thurston’s description in her yard.

One neighbor also reported that Thurston came by with some jewelry that he was trying to sell shortly after Coker’s death. Coker’s daughter also identified jewelry that Thurston gave to his girlfriend after the killing as belonging to her mother.

Coker’s missing vehicle was found abandoned in Seabrook, about a mile from home of Thurston’s mother.

Bloody clothing was discovered in Thurston’s home after Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office investigators obtained a search warrant. His DNA was discovered on the curtains in Coker’s home, on a mop located near her body and on a cigarette butt recovered from her stolen vehicle.

Thurston’s criminal histo- ry dates to 1994 and includes offenses in South Carolina and Georgia. Among them are four convictions for assault and battery, including a 2006 charge of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and a 2009 conviction for assault and battery with intent to kill that resulted in a 12-year prison sentence. Additionally, Thurston has been convicted twice of burglary, and also of criminal domestic violence and armed robbery. Circuit Court Judge Robert Bonds handed down the sentence.

Marquetta other development project.

Tropeano went on to state that the county “has guided the planning and timeline, up to directing our team to subdivide the property.”

Two weeks after the purchase of Pine Island, the property was subdivided into five parcels, a fact that Tropeano confirms in his April 7 letter. On March 8, Tropeano appeared at a Beaufort County Staff Review Team meeting to discuss a request to build three six-hole golf courses, one on each of three of the property’s newly subdivided parcels.

Ward was asked if the county advised Tropeano to subdivide his property, and if so, why was that recommendation made. She declined to answer those questions.

Several times earlier this year, county officials stated that three golf courses on three separate parcels cannot be operated as a single entity under county guidelines. The county declined to codify that limitation in a deed restriction during the March 8 meeting with Tropeano. At the time, Ward noted that “there might be some other ways to go about it” without specifying what those other options might be.

Despite the county’s position, Tropeano stated that he has submitted completed applications to develop three parcels in accordance with county zoning ordinances, which currently allow golf courses of fewer than nine holes. Ward confirmed that the county has received those three applications.

Ward additionally stated that neither county administration nor staff provided advice or assurances to Tropeano’s team regarding operating three golf courses as a single entity.

Public support swells

There was little doubt that the public would turn out in significant numbers for two county meetings held the afternoon of April 10 to discuss the future of development on St. Helena Island.

A rally held March 30 sought to make residents aware of the county’s meetings. An estimated 600 people heard community activists, politicians and religious leaders advocate to protect the island and show strong support as the county considered revisions to the overlay.

The message appears to have gotten through.

Residents and other interested parties started gathering outside county chambers more than two hours before the 3 p.m. start of the Community Services and Land Use Committee meeting. By the time the meeting started, the chamber was filled to capacity, and people milled about in the crowded hallway outside the chamber.

Another large group sat outside the county building watching a live feed of the meetings on their mobile devices. Some sat in lawn chairs brought from home along with cases of water bottles and homemade signs expressing support for efforts to protect the island. Still more watched the proceedings from inside an empty courtroom in another building on the county’s campus.

Tropeano has charged that the effort to update the overlay is in response to his plans for Pine Island. But officials and residents insist that they have been calling for a second look at the overlay long before the developer came on the scene.

The county’s 2040 comprehensive plan, adopted in November 2021, called for a reevaluation of the overlay to determine if additional land-use restrictions were necessary to meet the intent of the overlay.

But the effort to reconstitute the Cultural Protection Overlay District Committee was interrupted by the global COVID-19 pandemic until November. At that time, the overlay district committee was reformed.

Marquetta Goodwine, also known as Queen Quet, was appointed chair of the newly formed committee. Goodwine served on the original overlay committee in the 1990s and played a role in securing the adoption of the overlay at that time.

Courier

While the committee was getting on its feet, county administration presented their own changes to the overlay during a Beaufort County Planning Commission meeting in January. The amendment would have, for all intents and purposes, removed the overlay’s prohibitions on resorts, gated communities and golf courses in favor of requiring developers to enter into development agreements with the county.

If passed, county administration would have been responsible for negotiating those development agreements and ensuring the protection of St. Helena Island in accordance with the wishes of the residents there.

After a vigorous public opposition to the amendment, the Planning Commission unanimously rejected the county’s proposal. Per county procedure, the amendment proceeded to the Land Use Committee, which was meeting a few days later.

There, Councilwoman Alice Howard put forth a motion to delay consideration the county’s recommended changes until April 10, referring the matter to the overlay district committee.

What’s new in the overlay?

Robert Merchant, director of the county’s Planning and Zoning Department, outlined the revisions to the overlay recommended by the overlay committee for the Land Use Committee on April 10.

“I will say that these changes don’t constitute substantive changes to the cultural protection overlay district,” Merchant said. “They merely address the purpose statement and then reworking some of the definitions to meet the intent of what was to be protected.”

Cunningham started the committee’s debate, and quickly made a motion to move into executive session, which occurs outside the public’s purview.

Councilman York Glover Sr. pushed back against Cunningham’s motion, setting up a sparring match between the two that would continue beyond the committee meeting and into the council meeting.

“There is nothing that is being recommended that changes the spirit of the overlay district,” Glover said. “It more or less enhances, clarifies the definition of the community.”

Cunningham’s motion went to a vote and passed 6-5. For the next 30 minutes, the committee met behind closed doors.

When they emerged from executive session, Greenway launched into presentation regarding allowable development on Pine Island. The proposed development of Pine Island was not on the meeting’s agenda, nor was the presentation that Greenway made part of the agenda packet.

“We’re talking about a whole other issue than what’s on agenda,” noted Glover.

As Greenway moved through his presentation, he revealed that the county tried to purchase the Pine Island property before it was sold to Tropeano, the current owner. “The owners did not want to deal with the county,” Greenway said. County Council enters the debate for more

Once the revised overlay moved on to County Council, concern over the updated prohibition on all golf-related development came to the surface.

Cunningham once again started the discussion.

While he recognized the need to strengthen the overlay, he expressed trepidation about changing prohibitions that apply to current property owners. Councilman Mark Lawson echoed Cunningham’s concern.

“It makes me feel uncomfortable that Mr. Tropeano has purchased this property thinking that he’d be able to develop it, and we are now making this change tonight to push this forward to change the CPO so it says no golf courses, no resorts,” Lawson said.

Cunningham went on to offer an amendment that would have tabled the first reading of the overlay until June. Glover again pushed back against Cunningham, who eventually withdrew his amendment after other council members including Lawson and Howard said they wouldn’t support a pause.

Having passed its first reading, a second reading can reasonably be expected at the next County Council meeting April 24. There is no indication yet when the public meeting will be held, which is required prior to the third and final reading.

Meanwhile, the next step for Tropeano’s three development applications is a review at a county Staff Review Meeting. Timing for that is also uncertain, though several sources have suggested that it could take place as early as April 19.

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