Prosecutor: Inmate's past motives linked to sexual advances

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina inmate charged last month with killing his cellmate had two prior convictions for killing men over alleged sexual advances, according to a prosecutor and his own testimony at his trial.

William Tillman, 54, was charged Wednesday with murder in the death of 45-year-old Carl Pollen Jr. in their cell at Perry Correctional Institute near Pelzer.

Authorities have released few details about what led to the killing beyond an arrest warrant that said Tillman kicked Pollen in the head several times then strangled him with a bed sheet on April 29. Both men were serving life sentences for murder.

Tillman also killed a cellmate at a different prison in 2002, and Ervin Maye, the man who prosecuted Tillman in the first prison slaying, said there is an obvious link between it and the 1999 killing that landed Tillman in prison in the first place — angry encounters over sexual advances with a man he was living with.

"It was brutal. And he didn't mind talking about it," Maye told The Associated Press.

After prison guards found 37-year-old Michael Hodge dead in Tillman's cell in 2002, Tillman spent 13 years at Kirkland Correctional Institute, which has South Carolina's maximum security unit where the worst behaving inmates are isolated, according to state prison records.

Since the 2002 stabbing, Tillman's only violations of prison policy before the April attack were three violations for having cellphones, which are banned behind bars, and one possession of drugs violation, according to prison records.

Without any other violent outbursts, Tillman met all the criteria needed to return to the general prison population, Corrections Department spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said.

After the 2002 killing, Tillman told investigators that he became angry...