Shortly after 6 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, 2010, 67-year-old Edward “Slick” Gibbons was attacked as he went to his garage in Manning, South Carolina. Gibbons told police that three Black men wearing masks rushed him from a storage room, demanded money, knocked him down, kicked and punched him, and wrapped his head with black tape. They took $800 in cash from his wallet and $30 or $40 from a money clip.
One of the men appeared to have a gun, and one of them asked at one point: “Are we going to shoot him?”
They did not shoot him, but left him bleeding profusely on the floor of the garage. He managed to pull himself up to look out and saw two of them in his 1987 white El Camino. The third man, who was in the back bed of the vehicle, looked back and saw Gibbons. The man hopped out, ran back to the garage, and knocked Gibbons unconscious.
Minutes later, Gibbons regained consciousness and managed to crawl to the back door of the house where he rang the doorbell until his wife, Kay, woke up. She brought out a chair and maneuvered him into it, then went inside and called their daughter, a nurse practitioner, who called 911.
Not long after, a local farmer, Cecil “Mack” Eaddy Jr. spotted Gibbons’s El Camino on Oak Grove Road about two and a half miles from Gibbons’s home. It was sitting in the roadway with the engine running and the passenger side door open. Eaddy shut off the vehicle, grabbed the keys and called Gibbons’s business, Clarendon Auto Parts, in Manning. Eaddy told an employee, Ken Hodge, about the car. Hodge told Eaddy that he had just been told that Gibbons had been attacked and his car stolen. Eaddy then drove the keys to the store, and Hodge and another man retrieved the car, leaving it parked in front of the auto parts business. Sometime later that day, the car was dusted for fingerprints.
Gibbons was taken by ambulance to Clarendon Memorial Hospital. Upon arriving, a decision was made to transfer him by helicopter to a hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. While Gibbons was still at Clarendon, a police officer arrived and physically removed the black tape from Gibbons’s head. Gibbons had suffered a cracked hip and other injuries. He was hospitalized for more than a week and then spent a week in a rehabilitation facility.
Gibbons described his attackers as 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall. He said they were in their twenties.
A few days later, after police received information that three men were spending “a lot of money,” Clarendon County Sheriff’s Office investigator Kenneth Clark sought out 36-year-old Michael Pearson. Pearson denied involvement in the crime or knowing Gibbons, and he said he had never been to Gibbons’s home.
On May 20, 2010, police were informed by the Sumter Police Department that a thumbprint found on the rear quarter panel of the El Camino had been identified as belonging to Pearson. Later that day, Pearson was arrested. He was charged with attempted murder, first-degree burglary, kidnapping, armed robbery, grand larceny, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
On July 20, 2010, the police arrested 23-year-old Victor Weldon on the same charges. The arrest was based on DNA tests performed on the black tape on Gibbons’s head which identified Weldon’s DNA.
In May 2012, Pearson and Weldon went to trial together in Clarendon County Superior Court. The prosecution’s case was based primarily on the testimony of a fingerprint analyst who said the print on Gibbons’s car was left by Pearson, and testimony from a DNA analyst who said that Weldon’s DNA was on the tape.
The fingerprint analyst, Marie Hodge, testified that the Automated Fingerprint Information System had not returned any results when she entered the fingerprint from the El Camino. Hodge said she then printed out Pearson’s prints and made a visual comparison. She concluded that the print on the El Camino was made by Pearson’s right thumb. She said she found 14 points of similarity between Pearson’s right thumb print and the print lifted from the El Camino.
“Fingerprints are unique,” Hodge said. “They are unique to the individual. And what makes them unique is number one, they don’t change from birth until after death.”
During cross-examination, she said she could not say when the print was left on the vehicle and that rain would not erase it. She said that the weather would not disturb a print; that it would have to be wiped off.
Richard Gamble, who had a landscaping business, testified that sometime in the early spring of 2010, he performed landscaping work at the homes of Gibbons and his son and that Pearson worked for him on the job. The homes were next door to each other, and during the several days they worked there, Gamble said they stored their tools in the same garage where Gibbons was attacked.
A police officer testified that Pearson had been interviewed three times by law enforcement, and that he insisted he was innocent in all the interviews.
The prosecution also presented evidence that Weldon and Pearson had been in the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Center during the same four days in December 2009, although there was no evidence that they had interacted during those four days.
Neither man testified at the trial.
On May 18, 2012, the jury convicted both men of first-degree burglary, armed robbery, grand larceny, kidnapping, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime. The attempted murder charge was dismissed before the jury began deliberating.
At sentencing, Pearson said, “I know a crime was committed. And I know it was a bad crime committed to Mr. Gibbons. Also, I am an innocent man and… hopefully we can get this resolved with the appeal that we'll put in.”
Judge R. Ferrell Cothran Jr. sentenced both men to 60 years in prison.
On October 18, 2014, the South Carolina Court of Appeals reversed Pearson’s conviction. The court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction. Regarding the fingerprint, the court noted there was “other evidence showing Pearson may have had an opportunity to come in contact with the vehicle before the crimes occurred. For instance, there was testimony that Gibbons regularly parked his vehicle in a public lot adjacent to his store. Moreover, there was testimony that Pearson assisted with a five-day landscaping project at Gibbons’[s]residence, and he could have come in contact with the vehicle at that time.”
The South Carolina Court of Appeals upheld Weldon’s conviction in December 2014.
The prosecution appealed the reversal of Pearson’s conviction to the South Carolina Supreme Court. On March 23, 2016, that court reversed the appeals court and reinstated Pearson’s convictions, concluding there was sufficient evidence for a “reasonable” jury to find him guilty.
Pearson later filed a post-conviction petition seeking to vacate his convictions. He argued that his trial defense attorney had provided ineffective assistance of counsel. Specifically, Pearson contended that the attorney had been very ill prior to and during the trial, had not interviewed alibi witnesses, and had failed to move for a separate trial from Weldon.
The petition was denied following a hearing in 2018.
Weldon filed a post-conviction petition for relief arguing that his trial defense attorney had provided ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to call alibi witnesses who would have testified that he was at his mother’s home at the time of the crime. The petition was denied.
In October 2021, the South Carolina Court of Appeals reversed Weldon’s convictions, ruling that the defense attorney should have called the alibi witnesses. In June 2023, Weldon pled guilty and received a reduced sentence of 18 years, with a release date in November 2025.
Also in June 2023, Pearson filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus, again alleging that his trial lawyer provided ineffective assistance of counsel. The petition was denied in August 2024.
In May 2023, Pearson sought help from the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, and attorneys Christine Mumma and James Babb began investigating Pearson’s case. As part of their investigation, they contacted Weldon, who informed them that Pearson was innocent and had no involvement in the Gibbons robbery.
After Third Circuit Solicitor Ernest Finney III learned of the Center’s involvement, he offered to vacate Pearson’s convictions if Pearson would agree not to live in Clarendon County and to waive his right to a civil lawsuit. Pearson declined, and the Solicitor rescinded his offer.
Pearson’s attorneys later learned that a condition of Weldon’s June 2023 plea was that he provide a “truthful” statement about who else was involved in the Gibbons robbery. In his statement he said that Pearson was innocent, and others were involved.
After further investigation, on August 18, 2025, Mumma and Babb filed a second amended application for post-conviction relief with the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, arguing that the Solicitor’s Office had failed to disclose records relating to Weldon and others. The petition noted that the defense had been provided with records showing that on March 13, 2025, Leonard Smith, after failing a polygraph examination, admitted his participation in the robbery along with Weldon, Kevin Mellette, and a man he only knew as “Peanut.”
Moreover, on April 20, 2025, during an interview of Smith by Finney and two investigators, Smith reconfirmed his involvement as well as that of Weldon, Mellette, and Peanut, who he said was the driver who picked them up after they abandoned Gibbons’s El Camino. During that interview, Smith named another man, James Clark Jr., as being involved in the planning of the crime.
On August 21, 2025, Mumma and Babb filed a third amended application for post-conviction relief based on more records that had been disclosed by the prosecution. These records showed that on March 14, 2023, a police report documented that Weldon had identified Smith and Mellette in photographic lineups as having participated in the crime. In addition, a report on April 28, 2023, said that Weldon had taken a polygraph examination. The examiner said he was truthful when he implicated Smith and Mellette and said that Pearson was not involved.
“The State has had more than ample time to review the case for Mr. Pearson’s innocence,” the petition declared. “Mr. Pearson is entitled to long-overdue, immediate justice. Justice delayed is justice denied.”
That same day, the Attorney General’s Office filed an Extraordinary Writ for Post Conviction Relief Bond, which included a statement that the Solicitor’s Office could separately file for relief based on its own investigation. By the end of the day, Finney had filed a motion seeking to vacate Pearson’s convictions, saying that “credible material evidence raises a reasonable probability that Pearson did not commit the offense.”
This evidence included Weldon’s implication of the others as well as his statement that Pearson was not involved. Also, Pearson had taken a polygraph examination and was deemed to show no deception when he denied involvement in the crime.
On August 28, 2025, Circuit Court Judge Robert Hood vacated Pearson’s convictions. Pearson was released on bond, more than 15 years after his arrest.
At the hearing, Finney noted that Weldon had implicated others. “One of them has given a statement against his own interests, and we expect to charge him shortly,” Finney said. “We believe we now know who committed this crime — and the evidence doesn’t point to Mr. Pearson.”
Finney also told the judge that investigators believed a fourth person acted as the getaway driver and said that investigators were working to charge that person.
Although Finney said he did not plan to take Pearson to trial again, the prosecution waited until September 8, 2025, to dismiss the charges.
On January 30, 2026, Pearson filed a lawsuit in state court against Clarendon County, Finney and his agency, the Clarendon County Sheriff’s Office, the state Attorney General’s Office and others, seeking compensation for his wrongful conviction.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 10-03-2025
Last Update Date: 02-05-2026
