Man serving life sentence in 2018 Horry County killings testifies at Rabon trial about murder-for-hire plot
HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A man already spending life in prison for his role in the deaths of two men in a 2018 murder-for-hire case in Horry County began testifying Monday afternoon in the murder trial of Samantha Rabon.
Randy Grainger is testifying in the case of Samantha Rabon, who is charged with two counts of murder, criminal conspiracy, solicitation to commit a felony and accessory before the fact to a felony. Testimony on Day 4 of her trial began at about 10:30 a.m. Monday in Horry County Circuit Court.
Robert and Robbie Ford, both of whom lived in the Conway area, were killed in August 2018. Grainger was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2023.
Authorities found the two men dead in the front yard after they were called to a home off Highway 19 to do a welfare check. Grainger was one of three people arrested two years later.
During his testimony, Grainger said he and another woman, Theresa Martin, who was also charged in the case and pleaded guilty as an accessory, were living together and that Martin’s mother lived next door to Rabon’s mother. Earlier, prosecutors said Martin was the one who introduced Rabon to Grainger.
At one point, Grainger testified that he and Martin were at her mother’s house and they went next door and Martin came back and said that Rabon wanted to talk to him, he testified. Martin then asked him if he would kill someone for $20,000.
“Theresa wanted, she parked the car beside the road and waited for me to do the job and meet her down the road,” Grainger said. “She wanted to wait down the road. I told her to just go home and take the victim’s car and get of it somewhere else and call her.”
Later, he testified that Rabon asked him if he would kill her dad and brother. She provided him with a specific date and said they both needed to be killed so that her brother wouldn’t receive half of an inheritance, Grainger testified.
“She said that she needed her brother and her daddy killed, that she needed a specific day that had needed to be done,” he said. “I guess that’s when she knew where they were going to be at and what time. She needed both of them killed because if she just killed her daddy, her brother would get half an inheritance and she didn’t want that.”
Grainger testified that Rabon wanted the murder to look like a robbery and that she stole the gun that was used in the killings from her dad’s house.
Earlier Monday, text messages and online search history were shown to jurors during Day 4 of the trial.
Both the prosecution and defense spent time Monday morning going through certain exhibits, specifically text messages between Rabon and the Fords, and whether they should be entered and shown to the jury.
The first witness to testify on Monday was Lt. Benjamin Wells, who works in the electronic crimes division of the Horry County Sheriff’s Office. He said he extracted from Rabon’s photo to find calls, texts and search history, including a search that said “details of what information police can suck out of your phone.”
Wells used key search words like murder, police, insurance and money to find his information. He said Rabon searched things like “can you be a suspect in murder but not be charged,” how fast can you get a passport” as well as “can you clean up a double homicide in four hours?”
Detective Ken Marcus with the Horry County Sheriff’s Office was the second witness to testify on Monday. He used geo location as part of the investigation, something that places a device in a particular area on a map.
Between June 30 and Oct. 31, 2018, there were 72 calls and texts between Rabon and Martin. Two dozen of those were between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Aug. 17, 2018, the day before the Fords were found dead.
📲 Download the News13 app to stay updated on the go.
📧 Sign up for WBTW email alerts to have breaking news sent to your inbox.
💻 Find today’s top stories on WBTW.com for the Grand Strand and Pee Dee.
News13 has a reporter in the courtroom and will have updates online and during our afternoon and evening newscasts.
* * *
Caleb is a digital producer at News13. Caleb joined the team in January 2023 after graduating from Liberty University. He is from Northern Virginia. Follow Caleb on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.
* * *
Gracie is a multimedia journalist at News 13 and is from Cleveland, Ohio. Gracie joined the team in June 2023 after graduating from the University of Alabama in May. Follow Gracie on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, & read more of her work here.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW.
