Couple accused of using racial slurs against Black neighbor, burning cross at Conway home

A Conway man and woman are accused of using racial slurs against their neighbor and placing a burning cross in front of their home, according to police.

Alexis Paige Hartnett and Worden Evander Butler have been charged with harassment. Hartnett also faces a charge of assault.

Butler, 28, and Hartnett, 27, is accused of harassing and stalking their next-door neighbors with “racially-motivated words and actions” between Nov. 23 and 24 on Corbett Drive, according to an Horry County Police report.

The racial slurs were about the victim being Black, the report said. In another incident, the suspects erected a cross that could be seen over the neighbor’s privacy fence and was facing the victim’s home, the report said. The suspects then set the cross on fire.

Horry County Police and Fire Rescue responded to the incident.

While police were interviewing the victims and Butler, body camera video shows Hartnett repeatedly using a racial slur toward the victim’s family, the report said.

The victims feel that the suspects are a danger to their safety and the incidents are getting more frequent and threatening, according to the report.

Butler is also accused of providing the location of the victims by posting a photo of the mailbox on Facebook, adding that he was “summoning the devil’s army and I don’t care if they and I both go down in the same boat” and “I/m about to make them pay.”

It appears that the home is a second home for the victims, the report said.