Cherokee county man sentenced in attack on elderly woman

A 45 year old Cherokee County man is facing life in prison without parole after being convicted in may by a Cherokee county jury following a 3 day trial.   Circuit Judge Jeremy Taylor sentenced Charles Clayton Todd of Fyffe  Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his convictions of Attempted Murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree attempted arson.   Todd was accused of breaking into the home of Carol Lowry on the morning of April 19, 2012, brutally attacking the woman with a baseball bat while she was asleep.  Ms. Lowry told police she attempted to ‘play possum' and make her attacker think she was dead in order to stop the vicious blows. Believing his victim to be dead, Todd then proceeded to go to specific locations in the house where he knew guns and jewelry were located and placed the  items in a garbage bag. Prosecutors said that Todd's knowledge of the description and location of the stolen items came as a result of his wife, Bridgett Ledbetter Todd, having previously worked for Ms. Lowry as a home health nurse. Todd had accompanied his wife to the Lowry residence on several occasions. Just weeks prior to the attempted murder and robbery, Mrs. Todd had been removed from her work for Ms. Lowry, and she and Todd were instructed not to ever return to the Lowry residence due to reported violations of health and safety rules committed by the defendant's wife against Mrs. Lowry.Todd discovered that Ms. Lowry was not, in fact, dead, so he began beating her even more severely. Then, convinced he had killed her, he set her bed on fire and made his escape into the woods with the stolen goods.