'I gotta see him go': Son of murdered South Carolina woman to attend execution

Like any good mom, Irene Grainger Graves wanted to make sure her three children had a good life. She wanted it so much that she worked three jobs to not only put food on the table but to afford the occasional splurge, to make sure the kids were having fun, making memories.

Graves was working one of those jobs at a convenience store on a fateful Halloween night in 1997 when two armed men walked in and demanded to get into the safe. When the 41-year-old said she didn't know the combination, she was shot in the head.

That left her three children without their mother, bereft.

Freddie Eugene Owens was sentenced to death for her murder and is set to be executed by lethal injection on Friday in South Carolina, the state's first execution in 13 years and the nation's 14th this year. Owens has always maintained his innocence and on Wednesday, the man who gave key testimony against him said he was lying at the time and that Owens was never at the crime scene.

USA TODAY recently spoke with Graves' oldest son, Arte Graves, ahead of Owens' execution to talk about who his mother was and just how much her children lost that terrible night.

“Every day I miss her," he said.

The night that changed it all

Owens and his co-defendant, Steven Golden, were convicted in Graves' death, which came during a robbery of the convenience store where she worked in Greenville, South Carolina, according to court documents.

Surveillance footage captured the shooting but it wasn't very clear and authorities couldn't make out who fired the gun. Owens maintained he was at home in bed at the time of the robbery.

Golden on Wednesday signed a sworn statement saying that Owens didn't shoot Graves and was not even there during the robbery, according to reporting by the Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Golden said that detectives at the time told him to say that Owens was with him during the robbery. Saying he was afraid of getting the death penalty, Golden went along with it and in a statement to police said he "substituted Freddie for the person who was really with me in the Speedway that night."

"I did that because I knew that's what the police wanted me to say, and also because I thought the real shooter or his associates might kill me if I named him to the police," Golden said. "I am still afraid of that. But Freddie was actually not there."

Golden reached a plea agreement with prosecutors to testify against Owens and avoided the death penalty. His murder charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter and he was sentenced to 28 years in prison.

As for Owens, he said his conviction led him to kill his cellmate while awaiting sentencing, telling officials: “I really did it because I was wrongly convicted of murder.”

Irene Graves was ‘a hard-working mother’

Arte Graves, who was 18 when his mother was killed and is now 45, said he remembers how hard-working but also fun she was.

She worked at the Speedway convenience store, Kmart and a supermarket called Bi-Lo.

“She always reminded us to look after each other and always reminded us that we were family, to look after each other,” he said. “She was no pushover, she was a good woman, a fun woman ... We were always having fun. I liked wrestling when I was growing up so she would take me to the wrestling shows when they were at the old auditorium.”

He said his mother was also strong, determined, loving and caring.

Arte Graves said he had just moved to Delaware for college when his mom was murdered, and that he immediately moved back to South Carolina to be with his younger siblings, who were just 10 and 11 years old. He still lives in the state and owns a small transportation company,

As the years have gone by, he said he has come to accept his mother's death but has some advice, something he learned after losing his mother.

“If your parents are still alive, make sure you appreciate the time that you have with them," he said. "Try to make as many memories as you can with them while you are blessed to have them in your life."

Arte Graves to attend execution: ‘Gotta see him go’

It has been almost 30 years since Irene Graves was killed.

Owens’ execution is set for Friday after years of appeals and attempts to try and reduce his sentence. It was also apparently moving forward despite Golden's new statement, with the South Carolina Supreme Court saying on Thursday that the statement doesn't trump confessions they say he made to a girlfriend, his mother and two police officers.

USA TODAY was working to speak with Owens' attorneys about the development.

Arte Graves said he will among the witnesses to Owens' execution if it moves forward. He isn’t sure if anybody else from his family will attend, but he will be there, he said, to help gain a small sense of closure and to continue to move on. 

“Honestly I just gotta see him go,” he said. “I gotta see him go.”

USA TODAY interviewed Arte Graves before Golden released a statement swearing that Owens is innocent. USA TODAY is working to get Graves' response to the development.

​​Contributing: Terry Benjamin II

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.