COLUMBIA, S.C. — Their names became well known due to their crimes — a school shooter, a lawyer convicted of killing his wife and son, two mothers who killed toddlers.

James Wilson Jr., Alex Murdaugh, Susan Smith and Ariel Robinson — they were convicted and sent to prison — but what happened next?

The South Carolina Department of Corrections has the answer on its website. Each inmate’s name can be searched and their prison record read, detailing any infractions, classes taken and jobs they’ve performed.

SC prisoner activities vary

Here’s what a few of the state’s best known criminals have done behind bars.

The most high profile case in many years has been that of Alex Murdaugh, whose family represents a generations-long legal dynasty in the Lowcountry.

He was convicted of shooting his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at their home in Colleton County in 2021 and is serving a life sentence without parole in a state prison that Department of Corrections officials have not identified.

Murdaugh, 57, also pleaded guilty to 22 counts of fraud and financial crimes in state court as well as in federal court, where he received a 40-year federal prison sentence.

He was admitted to the Department of Corrections on March 3, 2023.

Corrections records show on Aug. 15, 2023, he was reprimanded for abuse of privileges — it does not specify what — and lost telephone privileges for 30 days. He has been a prolific phone caller, as shown by a story by The State published based on recordings of his calls obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

Murdaugh lost phone and canteen privileges after being found using another inmate’s pin. That was Aug. 9, 2023.

He has worked as a ward keeper assistant.

Murdaugh, who has bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of South Carolina, has not taken any classes or earned any certificates while in prison.

Todd Kohlhepp is serving a life sentence at Kirkland in Columbia after pleading guilty to seven murders, two firearms charges, two kidnappings and one count of criminal sexual conduct.

He was arrested in 2016 after a woman was found chained in a storage container on his property. Kala Brown had been there for more than two months after Kohlhepp hired her and her boyfriend to clean up his property.

She told police she saw Kohlhepp shoot and kill her boyfriend, Charles Carver. Carver’s body was later found in a shallow grave on Kohlhepp’s almost 100-acre property in Spartanburg County.

After Kohlhepp was arrested, he confessed to the long unsolved murders of four people at Superbike Motorsports, a high-performance motorcycle shop in Chesnee.

On Nov. 6, 2003, Superbike owner Scott Ponder, his mother Beverly Guy, and employees Brian Lucas and Chris Sherbert were shot to death. He said in his confession he killed them because he believed they were involved in stealing a motorcycle he bought from them, had embarrassed him and refused to give him a refund.

Kohlhepp also confessed to killing Johnny and Meagan Coxie, a couple who disappeared in December 2015 and whose bodies were also found on his land.

He arrived at the Department of Corrections on May 26, 2017, and has violated prison rules at least seven times since 2024, resulting in a loss of visitation and canteen privileges.

The most recent was June 6 when he violated and abused privileges and rules of the institution. The State reported in August Kohlhepp tried to sell tee shirts with SK TK emblazoned on them, which stands for serial killer Todd Kohlhepp, and communicated with a producer about telling his story.

On Feb. 1, 2024, he had contraband and lost phone and canteen privileges for 30 days. On Jan. 29, he refused to obey orders, abused privileges, created or assisted with a social media site, again losing phone and canteen privileges.

Five days before that, he threatened an employee, drawing 120 day loss of phone and visitation. He also assaulted an inmate, prison records show.

He has worked as a ward keeper assistant since February and previously as a canteen operator helper.

A real estate agent before he was convicted, he’s taken part in no education classes, credits or programs.

Susan Smith was convicted by a jury in 1994 for murdering her sons, Michael, 3, and Alex, 1, by strapping them into car seats and rolling her car into John D. Long Lake in Union. She was sentenced to life in 1995 but is eligible for parole. The Parole Board turned down her request last year. She’s eligible again in November 2026.

Now 54, Smith is incarcerated at the Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood.

Most recently, she was found to have communicated with a victim or witness, an infraction cited by the Parole Board.

But before that, it had been nine years since she ran afoul of prison rules. She was found with marijuana, used another inmate’s pin number, which drew 240 days in a more restricted detention than the general population.

On April 30, 2010, she was reprimanded for mutilation and possessing marijuana. Another marijuana violation was recorded March 10, 2010.

The violations carried various lengths of loss of canteen, phone or visitation privileges.

She has worked as a ward keeper assistant since Aug. 31 and previously as a safety security clerk, teacher assistant, landscaper, food service aide, laundry helper, shipping and receiving clerk, bookkeeper, secretary, library helper and machine operator. Her first job in prison was as a general worker.

She’s earned certificates in custodial services, horticulture and completed a job readiness course.

Quincy Allen, convicted of murdering two people in Columbia in 2002, is serving life without parole after his original death sentence was overturned in July 2024.

He has been at Perry Correctional in Pelzer since July 26, 2024.

He was also convicted of three counts of arson, assault and battery with intent to kill and pointing a firearm. Allen also killed two people in North Carolina.

He lost privileges due to having a cellphone in October 2024.

He has worked as a facilitator in the Step Down program, designed to help high risk inmates transition between intensive management to less confining units. He participated in the program as well. Caleb Kennedy, the "American Idol" front-runner who left the show after a video surfaced that showed him sitting with someone dressed in what appears to be a Ku Klux Klan hood, is serving his time at the medium-minimum security MacDougall Correctional Institution in Ridgeville.

The now 21-year-old was convicted of felony DUI resulting in death after he drove his car into a shop in Pacolet, killing a man inside.

His projected release date is June 5, 2026.

Kennedy has received no disciplinary action and has worked as a commissary operator helper and construction trainee.

Ariel Robinson, the Food Network winner of "Worst Cooks in America," is serving a life sentence without parole at Leath after being convicted of beating her foster child, 3-year-old Tori Smith, to death.

Now 33, she has been in the prison system since 2022 and has a long list of infractions, including interfering with count, out of place several times, failing to obey orders and sexual misconduct.

The violations resulted in loss of tablet, canteen privileges and visitation from 2022 to 2024.

The most recent violation was interfering with count on July 13, 2024.

She has worked as a wardkeeper assistant and food service aide.

Her husband Jerry Robinson pleaded guilty to homicide by child abuse and testified against his wife during her trial. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and has a release date of Jan. 9, 2038.

He has been held since June 8, 2022, and is housed at Ridgeland Correctional.

Robinson, now 38, has had no disciplinary offenses and has worked as a barber, cook and ward keeper.

Jamie Lee Komoroski was convicted of killing Samantha Miller and injuring MIller’s husband Aric Hutchinson as the couple rode in a golf cart from their oceanfront wedding to their reception in Folly Beach.

Samantha was still wearing her wedding dress when Komoroski ran at 65 mph into the golf car while impaired. Her blood alcohol level was 0.261, three times the legal limit.

Now 28, she was convicted of reckless homicide, two charges of felony DUI with great bodily injury and felony DUI resulting in death

She is housed at Leath and is serving a 25-year sentence. Her projected release date is April 24, 2045.

She’s had no disciplinary charges and has worked as a laundry helper and in the addiction treatment unit.

James Wilson Jr. is the longest serving inmate on South Carolina’s death row, where he’s been since 1989. He was convicted of shooting teacher Ellie Hodge in the cafeteria door at Oakland Elementary School in Greenwood and physical education teacher Kat Finkbeiner near a bathroom, shooting other children and killing two 8-year-olds, Shequila Bradley, who died at the scene, and Tequila Thomas, who died three days later.

It was one of the first school shootings in the United States. Wilson was 19.

He was convicted of murder, assault and battery with intent to kill, possession of a weapon. He pleaded guilty but mentally ill.

Now 56, he has numerous infractions on his record including throwing a substance several times and four incidents of threatening to harm an employee.

He has lost phone privileges visitation and canteen several times and has not had an incident since 2013.

Death row is now located at Broad River Correctional in Columbia. Wilson has also been held at Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville and Kirkland in Columbia when death row was housed in those prisons.

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