Ex-Wingate football player sentenced to life after admitting to killing teen girlfriend in SC

Ex-Wingate player gets life for killing girlfriend

UNION, S.C. — A former college football player admitted Monday he stabbed his 16-year-old girlfriend to death in South Carolina while his wife held her down to prove his love.

Former Wingate (N.C.) player Pernell Thompson, 21, agreed to plead guilty to murder to avoid a possible death sentence. His wife, Yolanda, pleaded guilty to similar charges and had agreed to testify against her husband. She is awaiting sentencing.

Thompson and his wife lured South Carolina’s Union High School cheerleader Marisha Jeter to a parking lot in January 2008, where he stabbed her in the neck. The pair then dumped the girl’s body over a bridge and burned her car, prosecutors said.

After pleading guilty, Thompson said, “I apologize for the part I did play” and said he never wanted to harm Jeter.

Jeter was a class president and honor roll student. Her father is a trustee on the school board and said he can never forgive Thompson.

His final words to Thompson were: “You’re going straight to hell and there ain’t nothing nobody can ever do to help you.”