A woman who was chained in a shipping container by a man who killed seven people in South Carolina has won more than $6 million from his estate.
A judge on Thursday awarded Kala Brown $6.3million in actual and punitive damages in her lawsuit against her capturer Todd Kohlhepp.
The 31-year-old had been missing for two months before cellphone data led authorities to Kohlhepp’s property in November 2016.
Brown said she was raped each day of her captivity. Her rescue helped authorities solve seven killings in the area, including that of her boyfriend.
The court-appointed receiver of Kohlhepp’s assets is still determining their value. It’s unclear how much money Brown and plaintiffs in five other lawsuits against Kohlhepp would actually receive.
Kala Brown, 31, was awarded $6.3million in actual and punitive damages from Todd Kohlhepp’s estate
Kohlhepp kidnapped Brown in 2016 and held her captive for two months
Police found Brown chained up in a shipping contained on his land, she faced her kidnapper in court last month
Kohlhepp’s string of crimes was uncovered after police rescued Brown from a storage container where she was chained at the neck and investigators found a body buried in a shallow grave.
Brown told investigators she saw Kohlhepp shoot and kill her boyfriend, 32-year-old Charles Carter, who went with her for a cleaning job on Kohlhepp’s property in rural Spartanburg County.
Kohlhepp raped Brown while holding her against her will, and told her he had also killed a husband and wife in December 2015, burying their bodies on his land.
Johnny Joe Coxie, 29, had been killed immediately, and Kohlhepp kept 26-year-old Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie alive for six days before shooting her in the back of the head on Christmas, Solicitor Barry Barnette said.
Police found Brown chained up in a shipping contained on his land where she said he raped her each day
He is serving seven life sentences after he confessed to killing seven people since 2003
Kohlhepp admitted to her that he had killed four people in the Superbike motorcycle shop in November 2003, the prosecutor said.
The owner, Scott Ponder, 30; Beverly Guy, 52; Brian Lucas, 30; and Chris Sherbert, 26 were killed because Kohlhepp thought they were making fun of him. Guy was Ponder’s mother and worked as a bookkeeper.
Lucas was a service manager, and Sherbert was a mechanic at the shop.
Kohlhepp is serving seven consecutive life terms plus 60 years on kidnapping, sexual assault and other charges. He will not be eligible for parole, and he also agreed not to appeal the sentence.
Deputies accompanied by cadaver dogs and X-ray equipment converged on this area off of Interstate 26 in Spartanburg County last week to search for the two bodies
Kohlhepp told Brown he killed Joe Coxie, 29, and his wife, Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie, 26 (pictured together), in 2015 and buried their bodies on his land
Kohlhepp has told a television documentary crew that he has two additional victims buried near an interstate, sparking a large-scale search.
Last week at 9am, 20 deputies with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office converged on the heavily wooded, snake-infested area near Enoree, based on the limited information that convicted killer Todd Kohlhepp had provided to a TV crew, which then notified the authorities.
Cadaver dogs and an industrial X-ray machine were also brought to the location to aid with the search.
‘We’re trying to get a game plan together to find out exactly where and what to do. Investigators have been talking to him,’ Sheriff Chuck Wright told Greenville News.’We’re not going to try to keep that quiet. We’re going to go search.’
Kohlhepp, 47, has alleged that two unidentified victims are interred near Interstate 26 in Spartanburg County in the northwest part of the state.
‘We haven’t been able to confirm anything he’s claimed yet,’ Wright said. ‘It’s not to say that the details are not sketchy because it’s been so long, but we’re obligated to go check.’
Also killed that day were 30-year-old Brian Lucas (left) and 26-year-old Chris Sherbert (right)
Kohlhepp also admitted that he had killed Beverly Guy, 52 (left), and her son, 30-year-old Scott Ponder (right) in the Superbike motorcycle shop in November 2003