Greer Man Pleads Guilty in Deadly Sex Assault

A Greer man has pleaded guilty to a brutal sexual assault that led to the death of a 33-year-old woman in 2011, Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor Walt Wilkins said Wednesday.

Police were called to the residence of 52-year-old James Byron Rushton on Edwards Lake Road on May 29, 2011 and found Rushton performing CPR on victim April Smith, whom he said had overdosed. Smith died at the scene.

However, during an investigation, Rushton admitted to sexually assaulting Smith repeatedly with a potato masher. A medical examiner determined that Smith suffered blunt force trauma to her genital region causing an air embolism that reached her lungs and killed her.

Smith was impaired at the time of the assault and could not have consented to the sexual battery, prosecutors said.

Rushton pleaded guilty Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter and first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Judge Warren Dickson sentenced Rushton to 26 years in prison and he must serve 85 percent of his sentence to become eligible for parole.