2009 Murder Case Goes To Trial Next Week

A man accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death in the Wade Hampton area of Greenville in 2009 will have his day in court next week. Officials with the 13th Judicial Circuit confirmed Hayes' case would go to trial Monday unless he pleaded guilty or received a continuance. 

Ralph Beverly Hayes Sr., who had no permanent address when he was arrested on Sept. 21, 2010, was named a suspect soon after his girlfriend, Jcqueline Doretha Alexander, was found dead at a Galphin Drive residence in 2009. 

On June 12, 2009 the Greenville County Sheriff's Office responded to 15 Galphin Drive, Apartment 18, in reference to a dead body person being found there. Because of the advanced decomposition of Alexander's body, the cause of death wasn't immediately evident, though an autopsy revealed she had been stabbed to death. 

Hayes wasn't arrested until a year later, when he was charged with murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.