Tuesday, Feb. 09, 2010

Horry County man serving life for attack outside Carolina Forest High School denied new trial

An Aynor man, who is serving a life sentence in the 2006 stabbing death of his girlfriend that occurred outside Carolina Forest High School, was denied a new trial Tuesday during a post-conviction relief hearing.

Edwin Cornelius, 28, pleaded guilty in June 2008 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the death of 18-year-old Natalia Holmes, who died May 18, 2006.

His plea for a new trial Tuesday was denied by Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Culbertson at the Horry County Courthouse.

At the time of his plea prosecutors said Cornelius stabbed Holmes 15 times including one wound that broke the tip of the knife in her arm after the couple argued as he dropped her off at school that morning.

During the incident, witnesses at the school also tried to get Cornelius to stop stabbing her, but he only paused for a minute and then continued, according to authorities.

Holmes and Cornelius met at Fitness Edge Health Club in Carolina Forest, became friends and then started dating.

In 2008, Cornelius' attorney, Ralph Wilson, mother Linda Cornelius and brother Eddie Cornelius told Circuit Court Judge Larry Hyman that Edwin Cornelius was mentally and physically abused. They said Cornelius was hospitalized several times for mental illnesses beginning in 1995.

Cornelius also was charged with voluntary manslaughter in 2003 in the death of his mother's boyfriend, but prosecutors dropped the charge after ruling that the slaying was in self-defense.