Family of Ladson murder victim relieved after convicted murderer denied parole

LADSON, S.C. (WCSC) - The South Carolina Parole Board denied a convicted murderer’s request for parole 20 years after a jury handed him a life sentence for the death of a girl near an elementary school in the Ladson area in 1990.

Crystal Leigh Surrell was 13 years old when she was murdered in 1990. When she didn’t come home from Oakbrook Elementary, a search found her body in a wooded area on her path to walk to school.

“My dad looked at her that morning and said, ‘Sweetheart, you want a ride to school?’ She said ‘No, Dad go ahead.’ And he beat himself up over that. It was really sad because he rehashed it in his head. ‘I could have just given her a ride that morning. Instead of me asking, I should have just said, get in the car, I’m taking you to school.’ But it didn’t happen that way,” Deanna Cisneros, the victim’s sister says.

Brian Lamb was 14 years old at the time of the crime and a schoolmate of Surrell’s. He was arrested 13 years later in 2003 after advancing technology and a special task force re-investigated the crime. In 2004, a jury found Lamb guilty and handed him a life sentence. Cisneros lives in the childhood home where she and Surrell grew up and says news of the parole hearing shocked her.

“I don’t think it’s fair. I don’t think he deserves freedom. No. And I promised my mother and my father that I would keep her name going. And I just want to keep him in jail,” Cisneros says.

Lowcountry lawyer Mark Peper says a parole hearing for a convicted murderer is rare.

“This is a bit abnormal because the current law in our state is not what the law was back in 1990 when this murder was committed, and so the defendant is entitled to the law as it stands at the time that the crime is committed,” Peper says.

In 1990, the State of South Carolina did not sentence people to life without parole. Any life sentence, even the most violent like murder, was eligible for parole.

“So even though he was sentenced in 2004, to life, he was sentenced to the 1990 statute which allowed those prisoners to seek parole after serving 20 years of their life sentence,” Peper says.

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For the Surrell family that means their sister’s murderer will be eligible to apply for parole every two years as of 2024.

“Twenty years in prison is not life. You know, he got 14 years of life. You got to look at it that way too. And he should have went sooner. But I guess it just had to wait till he was an adult. And they gave him this an adult sentence like he was it was supposed to be life. And 20 years to me is not life,” Cisneros says.

Cisneros says living in the home means being surrounded by good memories, but it also means the truth of her sister’s murder is constantly nearby. She spoke at the parole hearing Wednesday morning before the board in Columbia on her sister’s behalf. She says that’s a part of fighting for her sister’s memory and her own family’s peace.

“They say you have to forgive, I don’t know, I don’t know even where forgiveness comes from with that. But I’m glad that he’s in jail. I feel safer at night. I sleep. But if he’s going to just get out and roam the streets, how am I supposed to sleep? You know, how’s my sister going to sleep? My family? Knowing he’s out running around living his life, living a good life while my sister’s dead and gone, and my stepmom said and gone and my dad’s dead and gone. You know, it’s kind of sad, don’t you think,” Cisneros says.

Despite the parole denial this time around, Cisneros says knowing about the every two-year ability to apply is tough to think about. Peper says this circumstance is likely a part of the statute change that created the life without parole sentence.

“I mean, the victim’s bill of rights exists for a reason, right? We want to protect these victims’ rights. We don’t want to have them keep coming to court every two years. Part of that the life without parole was really meant not only for a deterrent for other criminals but also to make sure that the victims didn’t have to continually relive the incident every two years or so,” Peper says.

For now, Cisneros says her job is to keep her sister’s memory alive. As she flips through albums and albums of family photos, she smiles pointing out the candid photos and posed portraits the family cherishes.

“They called her ‘Crickette’. She used to love to go chase them in the backyard and bring them in play with them like pets, you know. And she had long legs. So she was very fast. She ran a lot and she loved skateboarding,” Cisneros says.

Under South Carolina law, Lamb will be eligible to apply for parole every two years, but Peper says it is a very specific situation.

“Eligibility is one thing. Actually being able to show to a parole officer at a parole board that you’ve somehow rehabilitated yourself is a whole different thing. That’s going to be a real uphill battle for this defendant as the years progress,” Peper says.