STATE BRIEFS

Man shot to death

by police officer

GREENVILLE - A man has been shot to death after fighting with an Iva police officer who was answering a disturbance call at the man's home.

Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore says 41-year-old Mark Monroe Evans died of a gunshot wound about 4 p.m. Saturday.

Shore says the officer, who was not identified, and a 71-year-old woman who lived in the home with Evans were taken to a local hospital for treatment and released.

''He has a cut to his face and he's kind of banged up and bruised up a bit,'' Iva Police Chief Tommy Miller said. ''I think he's still pretty shook up.''

The woman, Lula Mae Charping, was charged with assault on a police officer and interfering with a police officer. She remained at the Anderson County Detention Center awaiting a bond hearing on Sunday. An officer at the jail said he didn't know whether Charping had an attorney.

The coroner and Miller said the officer tried to subdue Evans with pepper spray and a baton before shooting him.

The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating the case as it typically does when an officer shoots someone.

State may test

people for mercury

CHARLESTON - State health officials will discuss testing mercury levels in people as concerns about growing levels of the pollutant in state waters has led to warning signs at boat landings in South Carolina.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control has warned people not to eat certain species found in parts of South Carolina's rivers, mostly along the coast because of contamination with mercury, a byproduct of coalfired power plants, factories and natural sources.

The neurotoxin that has been linked to birth defects, heart failure and other health problems ends up in rivers, lakes and streams where it builds up in fish over time. Mercury is particularly dangerous for expectant mothers and young children.

A recent series of stories by The (Charleston) Post and Courier identified people who eat fish from several South Carolina rivers who also have high levels of mercury in their bodies. The newspaper ran tests on the people through hair samples.

Leader says group

expanding to Idaho

ANDERSON - Christian Exodus leader Cory Burnell says his group is expanding its mission to create a community of people working to limit government to Gem County, Idaho.

The organization targeted Anderson County as its first community, but only about 15 families have relocated here.

''The Idaho contingent is an expansion, not a redirection, of our project,'' Burnell told the Anderson Independent-Mail in an e-mail. ''We had several committed CE members approach us about the good things happening in their Idaho communities and the number of Westerners they're running into who'll not ever move to S.C., but who agree with our strategy of focusing on county and state reform as a means of achieving federal reform.''

Burnell, who lives in California, founded Christian Exodus in 2004 in the hopes of moving ''thousands of Christians to South Carolina to reestablish constitutionally limited government founded upon Christian principles.''

He has said he chose Anderson because there already were so many like-minded people here.

Jonesville couple charged in teen's death

SPARTANBURG - Upstate police say they have charged a husband and wife with murder in the stabbing death of a teenager whose body was found in the Broad River last week.

Pernell Clayton Thompson, 20, and Yolanda Dee Thompson, 19, both of Jonesville were being held at the Union County jail Sunday.

Union police Chief Sam White said Sunday that 16-year-old Marisha Jeter was stabbed in the neck with a knife. Her body was dumped in the river under a bridge in Lockhart along the county line between Union and Chester counties, White said.

''There had been a relationship between the young lady and this man, who is 20 years old, in the past,'' White said. ''He recently got married.''

White said the couple called Jeter on Thursday night, the night she disappeared, and asked her to meet them at the Union YMCA.

Police say Jeter died that night.

Jeter's bright pink 1994 Toyota Celica was driven several miles into Chester County on state Highway 9, where it was set on fire, White said.

Jeter was reported missing Thursday by her father Manning Jeter, a Union County School Board member. Her body was discovered Saturday by a Spartanburg art student who was taking photographs at the Lockhart bridge.

It was the second body of a missing woman pulled out of the Broad River last week.

On Friday, workers at a hydroelectric power plant in nearby Cherokee County found the body of 25-year-old Verlishia Littlejohn of Gaffney, who had been missing since November. Dental records were used to make the identification, but a cause of death had not been determined.

Littlejohn's green 2000 Ford Taurus has South Carolina license plate 657 UXL was still missing.