Men sentenced in 2014 killing of South Carolina man in fire

CONWAY, S.C. – Two men involved in the torture of a man who was later killed in a fire in South Carolina have been sentenced to prison.

News outlets reported 23-year-old Mitchel Douglas Cheatham of Council, North Carolina, was sentenced to 30 years in prison Thursday. Twenty-five-year-old Douglas Deshawn Thomas of Elgin was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors say the men tortured and eventually set a fire in in 2014 that killed 68-year-old Charles Bryant Smith at his home in Aynor. The men pleaded guilty to murder and burglary charges.

Twenty-four-year-old Tommy Lee Benton of Chadbourn, North Carolina, was convicted in December of murder, burglary and arson and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The men were reportedly looking for $100,000 Smith was rumoured to have hidden somewhere.