Twice-convicted murderer, rapist and armed robber Stephen Stanko returned to prison Thursday after being given a second death sentence but he is scheduled to be back in Georgetown County in about four months.

On Thursday, Stanko was sentenced to death by an Horry County jury after the same panel found him guilty of murdering 74-year-old Henry Lee Turner in his Conway home on April 8, 2005.

Stanko, 41, has been on death row since August 2006 when he was convicted of the stabbing death of his Murrells Inlet girlfriend, Laura Ling, and the rape and attempted murder of her daughter.

Solicitor Greg Hembree said Stanko is in the appeals process of the death sentence for the Ling murder which means he will be back in the Georgetown County Courthouse in 2010.

Hembree said Stanko has exhausted his direct appeals in the Ling case, meaning the State Supreme Court has upheld his conviction and the U.S. Supreme Court has said it will not hear the case.

“That essentially affirms the conviction,” Hembree said.

The next stage of the proceeding is Post Conviction Relief (PCR).

“This is the process where Stanko will say his lawyers were ineffective. He will say their failure at the trial level was so great that it denied due process,” said Hembree.

A PCR hearing will take place in Georgetown County in the spring, Hembree said, adding the case will be handled by the office of the South Carolina Attorney General.

He said the session should last from three to five days.

Whatever decision is made by the judge will be appealed to the State Supreme Court.

“At that point, that appellate road starts to come to an end,” Hembree said.

He also said the death sentence handed down in the Turner case has no impact on the sentence in the Ling case.

“The two are unrelated. It’s very possible the appellate process in the Ling case will be exhausted and the sentence will be carried out before (the appeals in the Turner case) are ever heard. It could happen that way.”

Lawshe trial

Before those appeal hearings take place, the first death penalty trial in Georgetown since Stanko will be held.

The capital punishment trial of Shane Lawshe — charged with the 2007 rape and murder of Litchfield Beach resident, 63-year-old Julianne Blakeley — is set to begin February 8.

The trial was supposed to be held this year but a delay was granted when Lawshe’s lawyer, Tommy Brittain of Myrtle Beach, said his side needed more time to collect information that is prudent to an adequate defense.

Lawshe knew Blakeley because he had been working in her home as a painter for two weeks prior to the murder.

On Sept. 26, 2007, Midway Fire Rescue was dispatched to 244 Norris Drive in South Litchfield after Blakeley's neighbors called 911 to report that her house was on fire.

Rescue workers quickly discovered that Blakeley's death was not the result of the house fire, but that she was stabbed.

Hembree said there is "evidence to indicate criminal sexual conduct occurred."

Officials believe Lawshe set several small fires in the home to conceal his crimes.

He was arrested the next week in Horry County while he was stopped in traffic because of an open draw bridge.

A motorist behind him recognized Lawshe's car and called 911.