A man from South Carolina, who became infamous two decades ago for taunting law enforcement with a string of brutal murders, is slated for execution. Steven Bryant, now 44, is scheduled to face the death penalty on November 14, following the rejection of his final appeal to the Supreme Court for clemency.
Bryant has been on death row since 2008 after confessing to a violent spree in 2004, during which he shot four men over eight days, resulting in three fatalities. Despite admitting to multiple murders, his death sentence stems from the particularly heinous killing of Willard ‘TJ’ Tietjen, a 62-year-old victim whom Bryant ambushed at his secluded residence in Sumter County.
The crime against Tietjen was random; Bryant approached the isolated home under the pretense of car trouble before viciously murdering the unsuspecting man. The scene he left behind was chilling for investigators, marking a grim chapter in the case.
At just 23, Bryant stayed in Tietjen’s home after the murder, where he rummaged through belongings, smoked cigarettes, and used the victim’s computer. He left behind a macabre message written in blood: “victim number four in two weeks, catch me if you can,” further taunting authorities with his audacity.
Bryant targeted Tietjen at random, approaching his secluded home and claiming to have had car trouble before shooting him and leaving a sickening crime scene for investigators.
The killer, then-23, remained in Tietjen’s home for some time, ransacking his home, smoking cigarettes, using his computer, and then writing ‘victim number four in two weeks, catch me if you can’ in his blood.
Bryant also answered a call from Tietjen’s wife and daughter while he was in the home, identifying himself as the ‘prowler’ and telling them that Tietjen was dead.
The two other men Bryant killed, Cliff Gainey and Christopher Burgess, were picked up by him and offered rides before he shot them by the side of the road when they went to urinate.
Steven Bryant, 44, a South Carolina man who captured headlines 20 years ago by mocking police with a series of gruesome murders, is set to be executed on November 14
Bryant was 23-years-old when he shot four men, three fatally, in an eight-day crime spree in 2004, including writing ‘victim number four in two weeks, catch me if you can’ in his final victims’ blood
According to an archival WISTV article from 2004, Bryant was arrested at his girlfriend’s home after he was identified as the triggerman in the series of shootings in rural South Carolina.
Sumter County Sheriff Tommy Mims said at the time that Bryant left the taunting message inside Tietjen’s home telling deputies to ‘catch me if you can.’
‘And I’m happy to say that law enforcement has responded to that challenge and we have caught him,’ Sims announced at a press conference.
The sheriff said that Bryant had been released from prison on burglary charges not long before his crime spree, and said he carried out a series of robberies and other attacks while on the loose.
He also shot victim Clinton Brown in the same manner as Gainey and Burgess, but he survived the attack.
Bryant’s lawyers argued in court that he should be spared the death penalty because he had endured a turbulent childhood, beginning with his mother drinking heavily while pregnant with him.
He had then been sexually abused by four male relatives as a child, and his attorneys said he had been troubled by the abuse in the months before the murders.
With his appeal rejected by the Supreme Court, Byrant is set to be the seventh inmate put to death in South Carolina since the state restarted executions September last year
Bryant (seen in his original mugshot) argued in court that he should be spared the death penalty because he had endured a turbulent childhood
Bryant, seen in a mugshot from 2021, will have until October 31 to choose his execution method, and will have the options of lethal injection, firing squad or the electric chair
Bryant had reportedly begged for help from a probation officer and his aunt, and he had tried to overcome his mental health issues by abusing meth and smoking joints sprayed with bug killer.
His aunt testified at his trial: ‘He was very upset. He looked like he was being tortured. It’s like his soul was just laid wide open. In his eyes you could see he was hurting and suffering and he was living the abuse over again as it was coming out.’
With his appeal rejected by the Supreme Court, Byrant is set to be the seventh inmate put to death in South Carolina since the state restarted executions September last year.
Bryant will have until October 31 to choose his execution method, and will have the options of lethal injection, firing squad or the electric chair.
Of the six South Carolina inmates who were put to death since last year, four chose lethal injection and two chose firing squad.
