Wright guilty in 2 murders, gets 30 years

A Beech Island man who is currently serving a life sentence in Georgia pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in General Sessions Court Tuesday afternoon for murdering and subsequently setting fires to cover the dead bodies of two Aiken County women in August 2010.

Franklin Wright, 56, of Oliver Drive in Beech Island, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for each count of murder and 25 years for arson, all running concurrent to each other but consecutive to his life sentence in Georgia.

Wright pleaded guilty to the Aug. 11, 2010, murders of 75-year-old Yana Schenker, whose body was found in her Paddocks Bend Road home that was set ablaze approximately one hour before the body of 38-year-old Shalamar Byrd was found engulfed in flames in a Storm Branch Road field near Clearwater, Aiken County Solicitor J. Strom Thurmond Jr. said in court Tuesday.

Schenker’s autopsy revealed that she died by mechanical asphyxia by compression of the chest, and Byrd’s revealed that she died by asphyxia due to strangulation, according to court testimony, and both women died before the fires being set.

“Both individuals were killed at the residence at 105 Paddocks Bend Road, the residence of Ms. Schenker. Ms. Schenker, the owner of the residence, was killed in the bonus room of the residence, and the fire was intentionally set to cover up the crime and destroy any evidence at the scene,” Thurmond said.

The body of Ms. Shalamar Byrd, after being killed, was placed in the back of a Ford truck, owned by Ms. Schenker, that was used to transport the body to the location where it was discovered burning near Storm Branch Road.

Byrd’s body was set on fire with gasoline to make it difficult to identify, but a ring was found on her finger that belonged to Schenker; however, there was no evidence that the two women knew each other.

When questioned, Wright initially said that he came to work on the morning of Aug. 11 and Schenker left by herself and went to a doctor’s appointment, which the investigation determined did not happen, and phone records indicated that Wright’s cell phone was picking up signals near Beech Island, even though he said that he was in Aiken all day.

“That would be the beginning of a series of false statements that Mr. Wright would make during the investigation,” Thurmond said.

The investigation also found that Wright wrote himself checks out of a checkbook that Schenker owned and cashed the checks in the days before her death on the evening of Aug. 11.

Wright later told authorities that he had permission to write the checks to himself, and that Schenker had also given him old coins and jewelry which he sold at a pawnshop.

A neighbor, during the investigation, picked Byrd out of a lineup, identifying her as someone who had been seen with Wright in Beech Island a few days before her murder.

On Sept. 1, 2010, Wright was caught on camera brutally beating 54-year-old Jennie Hope, an Augusta store clerk, and on Sept. 2, warrants were put out for his arrest related to the two murders.

On Sept. 8, 2010, Wright was arrested in disguise in Augusta, and on Jan. 28, he pleaded guilty to his role in the crime and was sentenced to life in prison.

Wright was extradited to Aiken in mid-October while the Solicitor’s Office considered whether or not to proceed to trial.

“It was Sheriff (Michael) Hunt’s contention and my office’s contention that even though Mr. Wright was already serving life sentences in Georgia, there had to be an accounting of what Mr. Wright did to these two women back in August of 2010 and the guilty pleas today achieves that,” Thurmond said.

Defense attorney Grant Gibbons asked Judge Doyet “Jack” Early to consider the fact that Wright did not put the families of the victims or law enforcement through a long trial when determining his sentence.

“Pretty tough set of circumstances, your honor, about as bad as it gets,” Gibbons said. “He has spent a lot of his time incarcerated in his life, and I think that’s had a big effect on how he deals with situations out here in the normal world. He tells me he did have a good bit of alcohol that day, and I think that kind of triggered all of this. ... He’s got a long road ahead of him, and he knows that, and he is sorry for what he did.”

Wright’s sentence in Georgia requires him to spend the balance of his life in prison, and the Aiken County charges, in theory, would add an additional 30 years in prison beyond the life sentence.

Wright has prior convictions in South Carolina dating back to 1976, and, at age 56, he has spent more than half of his life in prison.

Contact Anna Dolianitis at

adolianitis@aikenstandard.com.