SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – A Spartanburg man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for two counts of murder.
34-year-old Marcus Danta Batson was tried and found guilty of the murders of 56-year-old Matthew Booker and 73-year-old Ronald Glenn.
Officials said the investigation began on July 8, 2021, when the Spartanburg Police Department responded to a house on Winsmith Avenue after friends and family reported that Booker and Glenn had not been seen in several days and were not answering the door of their residence.
Inside the house, officers located both men in their respective bedrooms deceased with obvious head trauma.
While on the scene, the victims’ other roommate Batson arrived. He denied any involvement in the men’s deaths and falsely identified the last person to have seen both men alive.
Investigators collected a bloody baseball bat from the scene and collected a DNA sample from both Batson and the person he alleged to have last seen Booker and Glenn alive.
Information from witnesses and surveillance footage from nearby buildings were also gathered in the investigation that led to Batson’s arrest later in July, officials said.
In a later interview with law enforcement, Batson confessed he had used a baseball bat to kill Booker and Glenn. He received life in prison without parole for each murder conviction.
