Fred Kornahrens was executed by the State of South Carolina for a triple murder
According to court documents Fred Kornahrens would go to the home of his ex wife Patti Jo Avant, 35, and shot her in the chest. Patti Jo Avant would run to the home beside her where her father Harry Wilkerson lived. Fred would stab the man to death before fatally stabbing Patti Jo Avant and her ten year old son Jason Avant
Fred Kornahrens would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Fred Kornahrens would be executed by lethal injection on July 19 1996
Fred Kornahrens Case
Appellant left the home of his girlfriend, Jan Tweed, sometime during the late night hours of February 8, 1985 and drove to the home of his former wife Patti. Armed with a gun and a bayonet, he waited for Patti to arrive home. Shortly after 1:00 a.m., Patti arrived in a car driven by her common-law husband, John Avant. John’s 10-year old son Jason was asleep in the back seat of the car.
John parked the car in the carport adjacent to a double-wide mobile home in which Patti’s father, Harry Wilkerson, lived. Patti exited the passenger door and appellant confronted her. She called to John and appellant shot her in the chest. Patti ran inside the trailer, calling to Wilkerson for help. Appellant followed Patti into the trailer, where he stabbed Wilkerson several times. Patti ran back to the car-port pursued by appellant. Appellant caught up with Patti near the car and stabbed her to death.
While Patti and appellant were inside the trailer, John Avant ran across the yard into the two-story house in which he and Patti lived. He ran upstairs, retrieved a gun, and heard appellant downstairs yelling for him. Avant jumped from a second-story window and ran around the side of the house. He saw appellant drag Jason across the yard, lay the child down and crouch over him. Avant ran to a neighbor’s house and called police.
Appellant spent the remainder of the night in the woods and was arrested the next morning. Two days later, the *284 bodies of Patti Kornahrens, Harry Wilkerson and Jason Avant were discovered in a common grave approximately four miles from the scene. All three died from multiple stab wounds. Jason’s hands and feet were bound with packing tape
https://law.justia.com/cases/south-carolina/supreme-court/1986/22618-1.html
