JUST IN: Mikal Mahdi’s Execution — Final Words, Last Meal & Deadly Crimes | U.S. Death Row 

JUST IN: Mikal Mahdi’s Execution — Final Words, Last Meal & Deadly Crimes | U.S. Death Row 

On April 11th, 2025, South Carolina carried out one of the rarest execution methods still legal in the United States. 42-year-old Mikall Dean Motti faced a firing squad, making him the second inmate in state history to die this way. But before we talk about his chosen method of death, his final statement, and his final meal, we have to go back to where it all began. Music.

It started in Virginia on July 14th, 2004 when McCall, then 21, stole a pistol from his neighbor. But he didn’t stop there. He also took a station, wagon, and a set of license plates to cover his tracks. He had a plan, and his first stop was North Carolina. The next day, in Winston Salem, he walked into a convenience store with a can of beer.

Behind the counter stood 29-year-old Christopher Jason Bogs, a store clerk just doing his job. He asked Mikall for ID. That’s when McCall pulled out the stolen pistol. Without saying a word, he aimed and shot Christopher in the face. The young man collapsed, bleeding on the floor. But Mall wasn’t done.

 He stepped closer, raised the gun again, and fired a second shot straight into Christopher’s body, point blank. Without hesitation, surveillance footage caught. What happened next? After shooting, Christopher Michael tried to open the cash register, but he couldn’t figure it out. He fumbled with it for a moment, then gave up.

 Instead, he robbed Christopher’s lifeless body, grabbed the beer he had walked in with, and calmly walked out. Then, he got in the stolen station wagon, and headed south towards South Carolina. But that was only the beginning. On July 17th, just 2 days after killing, Christopher McCall struck again, this time in downtown Colombia.

He carjacked. A man swapped out the license plates and pulled into a gas station to refuel. There, he tried to use a stolen credit card, but it didn’t work. The employees noticed something was off and called the police. But before officers could arrive, Mikall ditched the stolen car and took off on foot.

 Within a mile from the gas station, he stumbled onto a quiet piece of farmland in Calhoun County. There he broke into the workshop and stayed hidden inside. Flipping through TV channels like he had all the time in the world. He browsed through the tools and inspected a stash of guns completely unaware of whose property he was on. It belonged to James Edward Meyers, a 56-year-old police captain.

 That day, James had been with his wife and five children, celebrating birthdays, surrounded by cake, laughter, and love. Never imagining the horror that was waiting back home. When James returned, home ambushed him. He grabbed a 22 caliber rifle from the workshop and opened fire. Nine bullets, three hit James in the head, one tore through his heart.

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 There was no chance to fight back. No time to call for help. Then Mikall poured diesel fuel over his body and set it on fire. He stole the man’s police truck, his shotgun, and his service rifle and drove off like nothing happened. Hours later, James’ wife, Amy, who also was a law enforcement officer, went looking for her husband.

 What she found was the worst thing. person can see the burned body of the man she married lying in a pool of his own blood right in the same shed where they’d taken their wedding photos just a year before. By then, McCall was already gone and he had cross the state lines into Florida. But he didn’t get far. Police caught up with him in Satellite Beach, Florida, after someone complained about a reckless driver in a white pickup truck.

 But satellite police sergeant Jeff Pearson says Mikall did not surrender without a fight. He jumped out of the car with a semi-automatic rifle. He wisely decided to throw it down and then took off running. After almost a week of violence, the manhunt ended on July 21st, 2004. Mikall was extradited back to South Carolina and charged with burglary, grand lararseny, and the murder of James Meyers.

 But what followed was a legal battle that dragged on for years. Prosecutors pushed for the death penalty, pointing to Mikall’s long record, his lack of remorse, and the brutality of his actions. And they also revealed something. Jilling 6 years earlier during a standoff with police, McCll had sworn he would one day kill a cop.

 Now they argued he had finally followed through. McCall’s lawyers tried to argue for life in prison. They said he had atroatic childhood abandoned by his mother, neglected by his father, bounced from home to home. They said he’d been institutionalized as a child for suicidal behavior and grew up angry, broken, and ignored.

 And he had spent most of his childhood in juvenile, but the wasn’t moved days. Later, he plead guilty. On December 8th, 2006, the judges sentenced him to death. Mikall was just 23 years old at that time. Later, he was also charged in North Carolina for the murder of Christopher Bogs, for which he got life without parole. Then came the appeals.

 He filed own after another claiming his lawyers failed him that there was new evidence or that death by execution was cruel and unusual punishment. But all were denied. And if you think the story ends there, it doesn’t because in 2009 while sitting on death row mll got involved in yet another violent plot.

 This time with fellow condemned inmate Quincy Allen. Together they came up with a plan to kill a correctional officer. They lured the guard with a simple request. Can we go to the basketball court? But once outside, they jumped him, stabbing him again and again. The officer survived, but the scars didn’t fade. The attack cost him his job, his sense of safety, and his peace of mind.

 As for Mikall, he lost all privileges behind bars, but his death sentence remained untouched. He stayed right where he was on death row. Then, for over a decade, everything stalled. South Carolina couldn’t get athal injection drugs. Executions stopped. The state responded by rewriting its laws bringing back the electric chair and introducing a third option, the firing squad.

 By 2023, the courts had cleared the way McCall’s appeals were done and his name was on the list. On March 14th, 2025, his death warrant was signed. He had until March 28th to choose between three options. lethal injection electrocution or firing squad. If he didn’t choose, the state would do it for him. Eventually, he chose the firing squad just like Brad Keith Sigman on March 7th, 2025.

 According to his lawyers, the thought of burning in the electric chair or suffocating slowly on a gurnie haunted Mikall. So when the time came, Hos what he believed was the quickest way out the least of three evils. They said on April 11th, 2025, Mikall chose a last meal of ribeye steak, cooked medium mushroom risoto broccoli collarded greens, cheesecake, and sweet tea.

 Then Mikall was placed in a chair, a target pin to his chest, and a black cap covering his head. at 601p. And during a firing squad execution, the inmate is strapped into a metal chair in a room that also contains the state’s electric chair, which remains in place. A hood is placed over the inmate’s head, and a target is marked over their heart.

Three, voluntary corrections officers stand behind a wall 15ft away with loaded rifles. The wall has a small opening not visible to witnesses. After the warden reads the execution order, the officers fire. A doctor then examines the inmate and once death is confirmed, the curtain is drawn and witnesses leave.

 Witnesses, including family members, media and attorneys, can see the inmates right side profile through bullet resistant glass. ML gave no final statement, didn’t speak, and never looked at the witnesses, including his own lawyer, who were seated just feet away. The state’s firing squad protocol called for three prison staff to fire, simultaneously aiming at a bullseye target on Mott’s chest.

 What followed was described by those in the room as both shocking and deeply disturbing. Makti let out a sharp yell that cut through the silence. One witness said it felt like a deep heave as if hushist expanded hard then collapsed. His arms flexed and he groaned twice about 45 seconds after the bullets hit. Witnesses reported that he continued to breathe for another 80 seconds taking what appeared to be a final gasp before going still.

 A prison doctor stepped forward and pronounced him dead at 605p. M less than 4 minutes after he was shot at 42 years old. Mall Dean Mata was dead by the time he died. Mikall had spent 68% of his life either in juvenile or adult prison.