Agee gets 35 years for beating mother to death

Date: 6/6/2007

By Schuyler Kropf

The Post and Courier

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Just before he was sentenced for killing his mother, Allen Agee looked for his brothers in the courtroom and silently mouthed "I'm sorry."

"Sorry is such a useless word," he added. "But I don't know what to say."

The James Island man will spend the next 35 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter for beating his mother to death with a cast-iron frying pan.

Helen Reagan, 86, was found dead in the bedroom of her Woodland Shores Road home in August 2006, authorities said.

Although Agee, 57, was ruled competent to stand trial, he pleaded guilty but mentally ill under a negotiated deal crafted largely around a mental condition. The part of his brain that controls impulses was removed in an operation following an aneurysm in 2004, officials said.

Agee originally had been charged with murder.

No one knows what made Agee abruptly turn violent.

"It was a snap thing that happened," said Martha Dicus, Agee's public defender.

Agee had no history of violence prior to the attack. But he has a long criminal history, including convictions for fraud and forgery.

Agee became a suspect in the killing almost immediately. He discouraged family members from coming to the house the day of his mother's death, police said.

He also forged and cashed one of his mother's checks at a local bank for $110.

Inside the Charleston County Judicial Center, Agee strained to find family members in the courtroom audience.

"I want to tell my family I'm sorry but the sound of my voice probably aggravates them," he said.

One of Agee's brothers told Circuit Judge Deadra Jefferson their mother was a strong, loving woman who did her best to raise her children.

Jefferson called the killing a tragedy and said she couldn't think of a greater loss than a mother killed at the hands of her son.

"I pray this family has some measure of healing from this day forward," she said.

Reagan had lived in the house for more than four decades. She was losing her sight and used a walker to get around, but she remained healthy and independent, her family said at the time of her death.

She had lived alone until Agee moved in with her six months before the attack.

Agee's prison term includes the statutory maximum 30 years for the manslaughter charge, and also the maximum five years on the check forgery charge. The minimum sentence in a murder conviction would have been 30 years.

Because of his age, prosecutors don't expect Agee to ever be free.

"Chances are, he won't make it out of prison," 9th Circuit Chief Deputy Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said.

Reach Schuyler Kropf at skropf@postandcourier.com or 937-5551.

Copyright © 1997 - 2007 the Evening Post Publishing Co.