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Rico Funderburk was sentenced to 80 years in prison after he beat his girlfriend with a tire iron, a socket wrench and a baseball bat, causing traumatic injuries in Horry County, South Carolina. The woman ran to a nearby Walmart for help on Aug. 28, 2021, and authorities arrested Funderburk. (Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office)
A jury took just an hour to convict a man of a brutal South Carolina assault in which he beat and burned his girlfriend, requiring her to escape and run barefoot and bloodied to a nearby Walmart, authorities say.
The judge on Friday sentenced Rico Antonio Funderburk to serve 30 years for kidnapping; 30 years for first-degree criminal sexual conduct; and 20 years for assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. The sentences will run consecutively for a total of 80 years and the punishment is the maximum penalty for each charge.
According to the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office in Conway, the victim and Funderburk began a romantic relationship in July 2021. But the relationship quickly turned violent. The victim was “severely” beaten with various items including a tire iron, socket wrench and baseball bat, causing multiple traumatic injuries. She also suffered multiple third-degree burns to her body. Funderburk also sexually assaulted her. Prosecutors described what the victim went through as an “unimaginable ordeal.”
She escaped from Funderburk on Aug. 28, 2021, and ran to the Walmart in Horry County where customers called for help. Cops with the Horry County Police Department arrested Funderburk days later.
Cops learned that the ordeal happened over nearly three weeks, starting on Aug. 10, 2021. He took her phone, clothes and personal belongings and threatened to kill her, local affiliate WBTW reported at the time.
“Convictions like this are especially meaningful because they give justice to an innocent victim and protect others from violent offenders,” Leigh Waller, a senior assistant solicitor Waller, said in a press release. “We are grateful to the Horry County Police Department, and in particular Sergeant Christian Fletcher, for their assistance in the prosecution of this case. Without their diligent efforts we would have been unable to protect the community and bring this defendant to justice.”
