CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Brandon Council, the man who admitted to gunning down two innocent women during a Conway bank robbery in August, according to recently filed court documents.
Brandon Michael Council, 32, of Wilson, North Carolina, is charged with two counts of murder, among other federal and state charges, related to the killings of two CresCom Bank employees during a robbery Aug 21.
The victims, 59-year-old Donna Major from Conway and Kathryn “Katie” Skeen, 36, from Green Sea, were identified by the Horry County coroner’s office the day after the murders.
Court documents reveal Council admitted to the murders.
Bank video shows Council approach a teller and speaks with her briefly. “Council then pulls a firearm, points it at the teller and shoots her multiple times,” court documents state. “Council then jumps over the teller counter. Council is also captured locating a second female employee of the bank who was hiding underneath a desk. Upon finding her, the video captured Council shooting the employee multiple times as she attempts to hide under the desk.”
Court documents show that Council was caught on video driving away in a white 2013 Chrysler 200 belonging to one of the victims of the robbery. The other victim drove a Honda, whose vehicle key fob was missing when police arrived at the scene. Documents confirm “multiple bank credit cards belonging to each of the victims” were also missing.
“Bank audits showed a loss amount of $15,294,” documents state.
Just seven minutes after Council is seen on bank surveillance video, he returns to the Conway Express Inn, where it’s believe he stayed for days leading up to the robbery and murders, in the victim’s car. The presumed killer leaves the driver side door open, grabs luggage from room 110, throws it in the trunk of the car and drives away, the affidavit describes.
Council was captured in Greenville, NC two days after allegedly killing the women and court documents say he was “found to be in possession of his NC identification card and key fobs for Chrysler and Honda vehicles.”
Council confessed to the CresCom bank robbery, court documents state. “Council further admitted to shooting both bank employees during the course of the robbery. Council told agents that he was desperate, he needed money and that he knew he was going to shoot someone.”
FBI agents document in the affidavit that Council said he “knew that he was going to hurt somebody that day.” He admitted to police that he watched a movie called Get Rich or Die Trying. Then, the man accused of killing two women during a bank robbery, told police “he did not deserve to live.”
Council is also a suspect in the robbery of a Food Lion grocery store in Wilson, NC on Aug. 10 and a bank robbery in Wilson, NC the following day.
“A review of Council’s criminal record shows that on March 16, 2011, Council was convicted in North Carolina for ‘habitual felon’ and ‘larceny great than $1,000.'” The accused killer’s probation for the 2011 charges ended 11 days prior to the BB&T bank robbery.
Just 10 days later, Council killed two CresCom bank employees in Conway and stole $15,240, documents claim.
Court documents filed Wednesday state that if Council is convicted on the two federal charges – armed bank robbery resulting in death and use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence to commit murder – “a sentence of death is justified.”
It is unclear when Council will be in court again.