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BOY, 6, WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED, STRANGLED, CORONER IN S.C. S

A 6-year-old boy whose body was found after he disappeared while on a bicycle ride Saturday afternoon was sexually assaulted and strangled, Aiken County Coroner Sue Townsend said Monday.

The initial results of an autopsy by pathologist Dr. Joel Sexton in Newberry did not indicate when Keenan O'mailia was killed, Townsend said. She refused to go into more detail, citing the ongoing investigation.

``We're trying to plot where this child was,'' Townsend said. ``Anyone who saw him at any point Saturday is asked to call police.''

Police Chief Lee Wetherington has teams of officers working on the case, she said.

Wetherington said five teams of two officers each are going door to door in the neighborhood looking for clues. The Public Safety Department had also had more than 100 calls from people with tips or offering help.

The boy had gone for a ride on his red bike about 4:15 p.m. Saturday but never returned, the coroner said. His mother, Nina O'mailia, called police about 8 p.m. when she was unable to find her son.

A volunteer searcher found the body in woods near the house Sunday.

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HOUSTON INVESTIGATORS NAB ACCUSED S.C. MURDERER

A North Augusta man accused of sexually assaulting and killing a 6-year-old South Carolina boy was arrested Monday morning in Houston County.

William Ernest Downs, 31, told a family member he killed Keenan O'Mailia, according to Capt. Harry Enckler, an investigator with the Houston County Sheriff's Department.

The arrest came Monday morning after an unidentified person called Houston County Sheriff's Department to tell officers he overheard Downs, also known as Junior Downs, talk about attacking Keenan, according to Enckler.

A dozen officers from Houston County, South Carolina Bureau of Investigations, the FBI and North Augusta Police Department arrested Downs about 7 a.m. at a trailer in Red Fox Run Trailer Park off Elaine Drive.

"He was known to have a weapon, and he was wanted for murder, so we were careful," Enckler said. "He didn't resist. He was sleeping when they came in. He came peaceably."

Downs arrived in the Warner Robins area Sunday to visit family and allegedly made the incriminating comments Sunday night, Enckler said. Sheriff's deputies staked out the trailer where Downs was staying Sunday night until law enforcement officials could get warrants early Monday.

Downs was charged with murder Monday. Additional charges could be added after Downs' return Monday night to South Carolina, Enckler said. Downs is not facing charges in Houston County.

"I can't say what he was thinking, but I don't believe he was running," Enckler said. "He just came to visit family."

The 6-year-old rode his bicycle April 17 to a park near the North Augusta, S.C., apartment where he and his mother, Nina O'Mailia, were living. He was last seen between 5:30 and 6 p.m.

Keenan's body was found the next day by volunteer searchers in a wooded area near Riverview Park in North Augusta. Autopsy reports showed he had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

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Man charged in child's slaying a father himself

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. -- A 31-year-old man who police have charged in the strangling of Keenan O'Mailia is a father himself.

William Ernest Downs, also known as Junior Downs, was arrested Monday and charged with murder in the April 17 strangulation of the 6-year-old North Augusta, S.C., kindergartner.

Downs was arrested at a residence in Warner Robins, Ga., and was to be extradited to South Carolina, said North Augusta Public Safety Director T. Lee Wetherington. Downs was charged with murder and also will be charged with kidnapping and first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.

Downs arrived in the Augusta area from Albany, Ga., about two months before Keenan's body was found in a wooded area outside Riverview Park. He was looking for work and somewhere to live, said Daniel Favors, who let him live in the office of his Augusta plumbing business.

"I gave [Downs] a place to stay because he had nowhere to go," said Favors, who knew Downs years ago when he had lived in Augusta.

Favors, who was shocked to hear the accusations, said Downs has an 8-year-old son who lives in Richmond County.

After a week of intensive investigation with little evidence to work with, police got a break Sunday when they received information that Downs had discussed the killing with someone in Warner Robins. Police would not say who the tip came from.

North Augusta police and agents from the FBI and South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division went to Warner Robins to track him down Sunday night. At the same time, North Augusta police questioned Favors about his connection to Downs.

"They wanted me to say he was a crazy maniac, that I knew he was nuts, you know, talked about killing people. But he wasn't like that. The boy was not like that," Favors said. "He was a quiet man. He done his job."

Downs' job was to look after the office in Augusta's rundown Harrisburg neighborhood. The building had been burglarized three times in recent months, Favors said.

Downs has no known connection to North Augusta, Riverview Park, Keenan or his mother, Nina O'Mailia, said Wetherington.

O'Mailia, originally from Portland, Ore., moved back there Monday with her family.

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Augusta man who raped, killed two boys put to death

By MEG KINNARD | Associated Press
Friday, July 14, 2006 6:38 p.m.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Making no final statement and keeping his eyes trained on the ceiling, William "Junior" Downs was put to death by lethal injection Friday for the 1999 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 6-year-old North Augusta boy.

The 39-year-old Augusta, Ga., man said he stopped Keenan O'Mailia as the boy rode his bicycle along a dirt path. Downs said he asked the boy his name, then threw him to the ground and strangled him.

Downs, who did not pursue any appeals, pleaded guilty to the crimes in 2002. Before he was sentenced to death, Downs told Circuit Judge Casey Manning he deserved to die for his crime.

"I think it would be disrespectful to the family and disrespectful to the whole world if you did not give me the death penalty," Downs said then.

Downs also pleaded guilty in 2005 to kidnapping, raping and killing a 10-year-old boy in Augusta in 1991. As part of a plea deal, and since he was already condemned to die in South Carolina, Downs agreed to be sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, plus 10 years.

In both cases, authorities said Downs sexually assaulted the victims after they were dead.

The mother of the Georgia victim was present to watch Downs take his final breath. Kathy Porter Favors sat in the front row of the witnesses' viewing area, quietly weeping and wiping her eyes as the execution was carried out.

Two of Downs' family members also witnessed his death. His brother, William Kelvin Downs, and sister, Carla Susan German, sat in the seats nearest to their brother's head. As the chemicals began to take their effect, and the color began to drain from their brother's face, William Downs took his sister's hand as she audibly wept.

When the burgundy curtain was drawn at approximately 6:03 p.m., Downs was lying on his back strapped to a table, his arms outstretched, the left one connected to tubing that would carry the lethal chemicals from the wall behind his head and into his veins. He wore a bright green jumpsuit and was covered from the waist down by white sheeting.

Two minutes later, the tubes began moving, signaling that the chemicals were beginning to make their way into Downs' veins. His eyes then blinked slowly several times, and Downs swallowed a few times before taking one visible breath through his mouth and becoming still.

At 6:17 p.m., approximately 12 minutes after the tubes shook, Raymond Reed, warden at the Manning Correctional Institution, said the state's death sentence against the man had been successfully carried out.

Immediately prior to the pronouncement, a physician entered the death chamber, using a stethoscope to verify that Downs' heart had ceased beating and checking the man's pupils by shining a light into his eyes.

In addition to three media witnesses, two law enforcement agents and the prosecutors who tried each case were also present to witness Downs' death. Aside from comments from the media witnesses, none of the other witnesses chose to make a statement.

Corrections officials said Downs was served his last meal -- salted cashew nuts, instant french roast coffee, chocolate chip cookie dough, moose tracks ice cream and three Mr. Goodbar candy bars -- early Friday afternoon.