SPARTANBURG MEN SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR RAPE & KIDNAPPING CONVICTIONS

A Spartanburg County man received a 30-year prison sentence today for the abduction and sexual assault of a Landrum teen.

Rodney T. Murray, 28, was found guilty of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping at the conclusion of a three-day trial. Murray will serve 85 percent of Circuit Judge Derham Cole’s sentence before he is eligible for release.

About 2:30 a.m. on June 13, 2004, Murray and Curtis J. Woodruff, 27, of Spartanburg, approached an 18-year-old Landrum teen in the parking lot of the Hot Spot convenience store, 194 E. Henry St., and struck up a conversation with her. The teen told the men she was trying to find a friend’s house on Anita Drive and they volunteered to help. One of the men jumped in her car while the other followed in a white car. Murray and Woodruff took her to Lincoln Memorial Gardens on Cannons Campground Road near Plainview Drive.

Once at the cemetery, the men used physical and verbal threats to force the victim to perform several sex acts. Spartanburg County sheriff’s deputies developed Murray and Woodruff as suspects when the victim wrote down their license plate number on her hand.

Woodruff pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping prior to the trial and he testified against Murray. Woodruff received a 15-year prison sentence at the conclusion of the trial and he will serve 85 percent of the term before he is eligible for release.