LEXINGTON, S.C. — A notorious spree killer who murdered two people in Columbia has been sentenced to life in prison, sparing him from the death penalty.
A judge handed down the sentence against Quincy Allen, 44, in a Lexington County courtroom Monday afternoon.
The hearing came as a result of a 2022 decision by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which threw out Allen's 2005 death sentence for killing two people in Columbia back in 2002. The circuit court felt the trial judge didn't take into account Allen's mental health diagnosis, which included multiple stays at psychiatric facilities, as well as his history of suffering abuse while growing up. The judges concluded that evidence should have disqualified him from being given the death penalty as an option.
That decision sent the case back to the local court in Richland County for reconsideration.
The ruling ends a decades long legal process involving Allen, who went on a deadly crime spree in the summer of 2002. The crime wave began on July 7 when he shot 51-year-old James White in Finlay Park in Columbia. White survived the attack, and Allen later said he shot the man for target practice.
On July 10, Allen took 44-year-old Dale Hall from a location on Two Notch Road while Allen was on a break from his job at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant. Deputies said he drove her to an isolated area, shot her with a shotgun, and set her body on fire. He then went back to work.
On August 8, he got into an argument with two women at the restaurant and threatened to slap one of them who was pregnant. The boyfriend of one of the women came to the restaurant with his friend, 22-year-old Jedediah Harr. During an argument in the parking lot between Allen and the four others, Allen fired from his shotgun at the boyfriend, but instead hit and killed Harr. Allen left the scene and found where the boyfriend of the woman lived and set part of the home on fire, then set another vehicle on fire at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant later that night.
The next day, he set another man's car on fire. That night, he pointed a gun at a person at at Columbia area strip club.
Prosecutors said he then left the state to New York, and after several days came back down and killed two people at a gas station in Surrey County, North Carolina. He'd be sentenced to two life sentences for that crime.
Finally, Allen's spree ended with his arrest in Texas on August 14.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who's department investigated Allen's crimes in Richland County, said he was disappointed that Allen would avoid the death penalty this time around.
“I am very disappointed with the criminal justice system," Lott said. "It’s been 22 years since he killed two people here in SC and shot a homeless man for target practice. Plus killed another two victims in NC. He’s been a terror in the prison system and he will not stop. He will kill again…because he likes it. Today was not a victory for justice.”