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by WILL FOLKS
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“The story is a sad one, told many times,” Michael Stipe crooned on the lead track from R.E.M.‘s 1999 cult classic, New Adventures in Hi Fi.
In South Carolina – a state located just 45 miles east of Stipe’s former stomping grounds – the sad story that continues being told is that of violent criminals repeatedly released (and re-released) onto our streets by a justice system which habitually incentivizes evil, re-victimizes victims, subverts truth and eviscerates accountability.
Come to think of it, is that even a “justice” system at all? Or is it a consequence-free “catch and release” program – a taxpayer-funded turnstile enabling repeat offenders to continue terrorizing our citizenry with impunity?
This week, the sad story was told once again – with violence and permanence – on an Interstate which runs through both Georgia and South Carolina.
At approximately 11:40 a.m. EDT on Saturday (May 24, 2025), 38-year-old Nathan Orlando Cureton of Simpsonville, S.C. is alleged to have kidnapped 24-year-old Tayler Gennalee Maraj at a Spinx gas station located at 100 South Main Street in Mauldin, S.C. After commandeering a vehicle at gunpoint, the career criminal headed with his victim for Interstate 85 – where police say he later opened fire on Maraj inside the stolen car, a blue Subaru Impreza.
Maraj sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was transported by emergency responders to nearby Greenville Memorial Hospital.
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“Sadly she did not survive the shooting,” deputies with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) noted.
Maraj was not the only person to lose her life on the Interstate during Saturday’s incident… which occurred after prosecutors reportedly allowed Cureton a reprieve from his court-ordered home confinement to attend a graduation ceremony.
“(Cureton) continued to drive and at one point turned around, heading northbound,” deputies stated. “At that time he turned the gun on himself.”
The blue Subaru eventually rolled to a stop at approximately 12:30 p.m. EDT near the Piedmont exit on Interstate 85 – twelve miles from the site of the Maraj’s abduction. The incident prompted this major regional thoroughfare to be closed (in both directions) for three hours.
Some news reports have scratched the surface of it, but Cureton had a lengthy criminal history dating back to 2008. In 2011, he pleaded guilty to common law robbery and failing to stop for blue lights after originally being charged with robbery while armed with a deadly weapon. In 2015, he faced forgery, drug and resisting arrest charges. Another drug charge followed in 2017 and in 2018 he was charged with distributing methamphetamines and receiving stolen goods.
Despite his lengthening rap sheet (these are just a few of the criminal charges leveled against him over the past seventeen years), Cureton somehow managed to wind up back on the streets after each arrest.
That trend continued even as his criminal activity escalated…
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In 2019, Cureton was hit with another drug rap – along with charges for domestic violence, kidnapping, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, felon in possession of a firearm, common law robbery and assault and battery by mob (which resulted in serious bodily injury).
Those charges were all disposed of in May of 2020 by S.C. circuit court judge Robin B. Stillwell – who credited Cureton with spending a little more than a year behind bars.
Later that same year, three new drug charges were leveled against Cureton – although each charge was subsequently dismissed.
In May of 2022, Cureton was back in hot water – accused of attempted murder, domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, kidnapping and interfering with police. These charges could (and should) have landed him behind bars for decades. And if these weren’t enough, in December of 2022 – while all of those charges were pending – he was hit with yet another kidnapping charge in connection with a separate incident.
The following October, after spending less than a year behind bars, Cureton was sentenced to three years imprisonment by S.C. circuit court judge Edward W. Miller after he pleaded guilty to a pair of reduced charges – but he was back on the streets less than a year later.
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Of interest? All of this leniency was doled out at a time when FITSNews was repeatedly banging the drum (see here, here, here, here and here) for tougher sentences and more stringent bonds for repeat violent offenders in South Carolina.
“I keep saying ‘enough is enough,’” I noted in 2022. “Yet the system keeps failing. And the fatal consequences keep accumulating. Seriously … how many more bodies will it take before someone stands up and does something?”
Well, guess what… they still haven’t done anything.
And the fatal consequences continue to accumulate.
That leads us to February of this year when Cureton was the focus of a massive manhunt by deputies of the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO). At the time of this manhunt – which drew extensive coverage from local and regional media at the time – Cureton was being sought on charges of kidnapping and domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature. After being apprehended by GCSO deputies, he was charged with those crimes as well as resisting arrest.
Despite his litany of prior offenses – and the repeated leniency he was shown by multiple judges in response to them – Cureton was inexplicably granted a meager $12,500 surety bond, which he managed to post on March 7, 2025.
Based on his record, it’s honestly not at all surprising Cureton killed someone (and then himself)… it’s surprising he didn’t do it sooner.
“They failed her so bad,” one of Maraj’s mourners noted on social media.
A popular truism holds that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Another popular truism holds that when people show you who they are, believe them – and act accordingly. In South Carolina, violent criminals continue showing our “justice system” exactly who they are… yet far too many prosecutors and judges keep suspending disbelief and allowing them to terrorize our communities.
Again, that is not justice… that is crazy.
And the body count from this insanity keeps ratcheting up…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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20 comments
The reason no one is listening to you “bang the drum” is because that is all you are doing. You do not have any real solutions, you just whine about the judicial system. But you also cherry pick situations without any understanding of the law. If you were doing your job, you would know there are far more people being held without bond or with unfair bonds. But that doesn’t bait the clicks, does it?
You seem to think accusations are all that should matter. Someone accused of wrongdoing gets no due process, just taken straight to jail. That is a position that loses a lot of credibility when I go look at the public index describing the lawsuit against you. It looks pretty clear you are absolutely in the wrong. But your lawyers are pulling out all kinds of smoke and mirrors to help you avoid responsibility for what you did.
Due process for you, but not for us, huh?
Small bonds are the issue not only in South Carolina but all over the country. A $12,500 bond for charges of kidnapping and domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature?
People who bring up something that is not relevant (whatever you are accusing Will of doing) lose all credibility with me.
Just out of sheer curiosity, what do you think Will should be doing more of? I mean let’s face it, the “news” media in SC is subpar at best who fill their positions with interns who can barely use spellcheck because thats the only way they can keep the lights on. And is there a recent case against Will I am not aware of or are you referring to the case from 2005? I am not professing to be nearly as smart as you regarding the law but from my perspective, the latest bond was extremely low and he should have never been released. Also, you seem to be aware of a lot of activities in that judicial circuit, so can you confirm he was allowed to leave his home to attend a graduation ceremony when all of this went down? Do you have a website that I can visit to see all of the people you reference that have been treated unfairly by the system by not being offered bond or issued unfair bonds? I would genuinely like to read more regarding those cases. Thank you in advance for your time to respond. I truly appreciate learning more about just how bad the system is in SC , but prefer facts that can be verified and not opinions.
You are missing some important information.
When he came up for bond in March 2025, this same victim showed up in court, said she wasn’t afraid of him, said the alleged domestic violence never happened, and asked for him to be released. The solicitor fought hard to keep him in jail.
Aye, there is the rub! Nobody wants to bring that up as it might be construed as “victim blaming”, but the sad fact is, that victims often ARE to blame.
People seem to forget that the alleged victims are a big part of the process. If they are uncooperative or change their story about the incident, the system breaks down. Her mourners should have convinced her to leave him and assist in his prosecution. I’m not saying that some in the judiciary aren’t extremely lenient when it comes to punishment for crimes and that most of them are former defense attorneys who acquiesce to their pals in the defense bar, but that’s a conversation for another thread.
Most judges are not former defense attorneys.
Name them
I’m happy to do it so there will at least be some accurate information on this website for once.
I will go through the list statewide if you are too lazy to look on the website. But in Greenville, there are four judges. Salvini was a defense lawyer, Morgan, Fant, and Dunbar were not. None of those four have a reputation as being soft on criminal defendants. In Spartanburg, none of them were except Kelly who is also certainly not soft on criminal defendants. In Pickens, Gravely was a criminal defense lawyer but also is not known for taking it easy on criminal defendants.
So of the 10 or so upstate judges, 3 were former defense lawyers at some point in their career but their rulings do not support your claim. Because your claim, like every claim Will makes, is false and not based on any reality.
The comments here are typical of affluent people not affected by low-life crinimals. I think many of the commenters opinions would change when they or someone they know is a victim of these repeat offenders that should’ve been in jail.
Or trial lawyers or legislators
Katie everyone is affected by low life criminals. The fact is that oftentimes the victims and /or their families and friends are unwilling to cooperate in the prosecution. They don’t want to get involved or be “snitches”. Its a sad but true reality. Couple that with greedy lawyers and judges who are beholden to their puppet masters and it hurts the average citizen. The law abiding people want more prisons, real punishment with long sentences and to be treated with respect. Prison is for punishment not rehabilitation, we don’t need to slip back into the 70s mindset.
Great work here. Literally every sentence you wrote is untrue. It must be so freeing to be anonymous.
Katie everyone is affected by low life criminals. – Absolutely true, if even only in the cost of insurance. According to a UofChicago study, the financial cost of crime in the US may be as high as $5,800,000,000,000 (5.8 trillion) annually. Non-monetary “costs include fear and anxiety associated with crime, time lost due to avoidance or recovery, and other intangible losses.
The fact is that oftentimes the victims and /or their families and friends are unwilling to cooperate in the prosecution. – Again, absolutely true, according to the OJP, as many as 59% of victims of violent crimes DON’T report the offense to police
They don’t want to get involved or be “snitches”. Its a sad but true reality. – Again, absolutely true, according to a BJS report, 13% of victims don’t report crime out of fear of reprisal (snitches get stitches) or of getting the perpetrator in trouble
Couple that with greedy lawyers and judges who are beholden to their puppet masters and it hurts the average citizen. We’ll just let this one sit with a few names – Sam Mendenhall, James Ferguson, Carmen Mullins…
The law-abiding people want more prisons, real punishment with long sentences and to be treated with respect. – Again (are we seeing a trend here Joshua?) absolutely true, according to an Open Society Foundation study, “…the public favors dealing with the roots of crime over strict sentencing by a two-to-one margin, 65 percent to 32 percent…”
Prison is for punishment not rehabilitation, we don’t need to slip back into the 70s mindset. possibly true, I’ll leave this one as a matter of opinion, but the DOJ says that severity of sentence isn’t the huge deterrent that most would assume (even though it’s real hard to commit a crime against society from behind bars). They go on to say that certainty of getting caught and going to prison (getting caught, adjudged and quickly punished) is a HUGE deterrent. The study points out the need to follow the 6th amendment and to cut out a lot of the bovine excreta allowed in the criminal judicial system (like legislative immunity)
Thanks for the research colonel, Joshua is too busy stacking his $$$ to look at facts. Better check again on Salvini and Dunbar and their sentencing trends. Absolutely light on criminals. Pyle, Patterson, McGowan et al sentenced criminals to actual prison. Even Eppes was less lenient than this latest crop
I am not sure what your problem is with me. I know you once threatened to report me to ODC and never did, but it seems pretty personal. Hard to say when you are hiding behind initials. I have other stuff to do today (I wish it was stacking $$$) but happy to address these points:
1. You are misrepresenting the U of Chicago study. Read the part about uneven distribution.
2.
Sorry that got cut off and it won’t let me edit comments:
2. Your statistics involve people not reporting crime, which is altogether different from not cooperating. But the state can prosecute without cooperation and often does. Either way, why do you get to tell a victim they are a victim?
3. I only recognize one name on that list, but you are going to need far more examples to claim the whole system is run by greedy lawyers and judges.
4. Read that sentence again carefully – I think your study says the same thing I am saying
5. You’re right this is opinion, so I should not have said it was untrue. Sorry.
Joshua what crimes other than murder, DV, environmental crimes and drug violations can be prosecuted without victim cooperation? Im sure there are others but i cant think of many. No victim , no crime isn’t that how the old saying goes.
Surprisingly, prosecutors have found ways to prosecute a wide variety of assaults without the victim cooperating. With the crimes you listed, that covers the vast majority of “victim” crimes. I am not saying it is easy, just that it happens a lot.
My Grandfather was the Sheriff and Chief Deputy Sheriff in Spartanburg County back in the 40’s and 50’s. He once told me that the most dangerous arrests were domestic violence, because when you arrested the spouse, most times the victim turned on the officers who made the arrest. Many officers were injured by the victim when removing the perp from the home.