The Region : Woman Guilty of Murder

A 21-year-old South Carolina woman was convicted in the torture slaying of a Glendale pizza deliveryman, despite her claims that she was only a passive observer of the murder she said was committed by her boyfriend. A Pasadena Superior Court jury found Ruby Carolyn Padgett guilty of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of robbery in the Dec. 9, 1985, motel-room killing of Domino’s Pizza deliveryman John Steven Harrigan, 21. Padgett faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is scheduled April 3, at which time her attorney said he will appeal the verdict. Padgett’s boyfriend, Mitchell Carleton Sims, 26, who also faces murder charges in the shooting death of two Domino’s pizza employees in Hanahan, S.C., will be tried next month in the Harrigan slaying. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.