‘She was everything to me’: Children of CresCom murder victim testify in capital trial
Donna Major’s voice filled a courtroom as recordings of two voicemail messages she left her daughters were played for a federal jury, and both ended the same way.
“She always ended with ‘I love you,’” Heather Turner, one of Major’s three children, testified through tears. “There was never a day in my life, I think, she didn’t tell me she loved me or how proud she was of me.”
The three children were the final witnesses called by federal prosecutors on Thursday as they rested their case on why Brandon Council should be sentenced to death for killing Major and Katie Skeen.
A federal jury convicted Council last week for killing the two employees during a robbery of the 16th Avenue branch on Aug. 21, 2017.
All three of Major’s children — Turner, her twin brother, Doug MacRae, and their sister, Katie MacRae — described the love in their house growing up.
“She was everything to me,” Katie MacRae said. “She was my mom, obviously. She was my best friend. She believed in me.”
Doug MacRae said Major always pushed him, even to propose to his now-wife. Then, Major pushed him to have grandchildren.
Major had three grandkids when she died. Doug MacRae’s second child, Major’s fourth grandchild, is expected to arrive in November. The siblings cried as they lamented how Major will not see milestones for the grandchildren and how they will likely not remember “Nonna.” When she became a grandmother, Major wanted to go from “Donna” to “Nonna,” Doug MacRae said.
“This is the worst thing that ever happened to me,” Turner said. “To me, my babies lost their Nonna.”
The siblings were together with their children on Aug. 21, watching the eclipse in Sumter. As they returned to the Conway area, Turner started to receive phone calls and messages and learned of the bank robbery.
The children talked about how they would not let Major return to the branch and they were going to force her into retirement. Turner spoke to their father, Donna’s husband, who told her that their mom died. She demanded her brother pull over, and she shared the news.
“My dad heard us crying on the side of the road,” Turner said. Turner’s then 3-year-old daughter rubbed her mom’s back saying “Mommy, it’s OK, don’t cry,” Turner recalled.
Doug MacRae said the news didn’t register at first. He returned to the truck and drove to his parents’ house in Conway. There, he saw friends and family in the yard, and he couldn’t even make it to the end of the driveway.
“It kind of all hit me at once, my mom is dead,” Doug MacRae said as he cried. “I don’t have my mom anymore!”
Katie MacRae held a quilt during her testimony, as several people testified about how Major was an exquisite quilter. She said she didn’t process the news when she heard it. Katie MacRae even asked if their mom was going to be OK as the siblings sped back to Conway.
“No baby,” her older sister had to tell her, Katie MacRae said. “Mom’s gone. Mom died.”
All three of the children said they are not the same since she died.
“Life has been extremely hard,” Katie MacRae said. “I am not the same person I was on Aug. 20 or Aug. 21. I not the same person anymore and no one asked me if that was OK. I got that taken away. I miss my mom so bad.”
Major’s husband, Dan, did not testify, but Turner said his life has changed and now he speaks of wanting to meet his wife in heaven.
“He just wants to go where she is,” Turner said, “we all do.”
