Trial begins for woman accused of killing ex with help of former Horry Co. coroner
More chilling details emerged during the first day of Meagan Jackson’s trial in the killing of the father of their four children.
Jackson’s trial on charges of murder and criminal conspiracy began Tuesday morning in a Horry County courtroom in Conway, S.C. She’s accused of fatally shooting her ex-boyfriend, Greg Rice, in October 2020. Her lover and former Horry County Deputy Coroner, Christopher Dontell, then dumped Rice’s body in the Little Pee Dee River.
Dontell pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and criminal conspiracy to commit murder on Dec. 4, 2024, The Sun News previously reported. He will be sentenced after Jackson’s trial.
Jackson and Rice were together for many years and had four children together. Their 19-year-old daughter, Savannah Rice, testified against her mother on Tuesday.
Dontell and Jackson were family friends, with their children growing up together. They began having an affair in the beginning of 2020. Since Jackson was a body transporter, the pair worked closely together, which helped hide the affair, lead prosecutor Leigh Andrew Waller said Tuesday.
Jackson allegedly killed Rice and brought his body to the Myrtle Beach Funeral Home around Oct. 2, 2020, senior assistant solicitor Mary-Ellen Walter said after Dontell pleaded guilty, The Sun News previously reported.
Afterward, Jackson texted Dontell saying something like “Greg is gone.”
“Ms. Jackson said to him, essentially, ‘It was him or you. I need you to go get him out of the Myrtle Beach Funeral Home,’” Walter said during testimony during Dontell’s trial. “We then have direct video of Mr. Dontell at the Lowe’s Home Improvement Store purchasing items that were later found to be used to dispose of Greg Rice’s body, specifically a tarp, ratchet straps, two cinder blocks and some zip ties.”
Jackson made a comment alluding to killing Rice to her daughter
Savannah Rice told the jury that her mother began acting strange on Oct. 3, 2020, two days before her father was reported missing.
Jackson and Greg Rice’s children lived primarily with their mother, with regular visits to their father’s apartment. The morning after Greg Rice’s death, Jackson drove her children to Greg Rice’s home to transfer the children, even though he regularly picked them up from Jackson’s house, Savannah Rice testified.
Once at Greg Rice’s apartment, Savannah Rice received a frantic phone call from Jackson stating that Greg Rice was not home. In the weeks following, Jackson was away from home more often than normal.
Before the discovery of Greg Rice’s body, Savannah Rice said she remembered a fight between her mother and sister.
“My sister was upstairs, but then (Jackson) looked at me and she said, ‘I hope what happened to your dad happens to your sister.’ And I asked her, ‘What do you mean?’ And she was not saying anything,” Savannah Rice said.
Rice was found by people stringing catfish lines
Donna Sue Soles testified that she was hanging lines for catfish overnight on Nov. 7-8 near Pitts Landing. She tied the lines just before dark and then she and brother would come out on their boat and check on the lines periodically.
While riding on the river, she said she smelled something horrible. “It was an awful smell, I actually threw up,” Soles said.
She knew something was not right, so Soles drew closer and found a gray tarp floating in the water. The closer she got, the worse the smell got. She lifted the tarp with a paddle and saw clothing underneath and thought it might be a person.
Before calling the authorities, she wanted to be sure. She cut the tarp on one side and saw jeans and a leg, then cut the tarp on the other side and saw a shirt and a chest. The body was later identified to be Greg Rice.
Jackson and Dontell were together much of the night Rice died
On Oct. 2, the night of Rice’s death, Jackson and Dontell were together. They began by practicing shooting at the Lewis Ocean Bays Heritage Preserve, Andrew Waller said. Security footage then showed them entering and leaving Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant at 740 Coastal Grand Circle.
Later that night, around 11 p.m., Dontell and Jackson appeared to show up at the Carolina Forest Lowes Foods parking lot. Two vehicles show up, a silver minivan and a silver SUV, which Horry County police Officer Johnathan Kelly said Jackson and Dontell drove for work.
Over the course of the next few hours, security footage captured what appeared to be Dontell getting out of his SUV and into Jackson’s minivan with a bag. The cars are switched around several times throughout the night, with Dontell showing up to drive his SUV and coming back to get the van at least once.
The cars finally leave the parking lot at the same time around 8:15 a.m.
Cellphone, license plate data implicates Dontell and Jackson
The prosecution did not provide any explicit proof that Jackson killed Rice. Instead Rice’s cellphone data and license plate readers raised suspicions.
At 10 p.m., the body transport van Jackson uses for work is seen entering Rice’s HOA. At the same time, cellphone data showed Rice was at his home.
Shortly after, license plate readers captured the van driving to the Myrtle Beach Funeral Home while at the same time, Rice’s cellphone is pinging in the same direction, Andrew Waller told jurors.
At about 11 p.m. security footage showed Dontell and Jackson near the Lowes Foods complex in Carolina Forest. At the same time, Greg Rice’s cellphone pings for the last time. They then go to the Myrtle Beach Funeral home.
An embalmer sees Jackson and Dontell at the Myrtle Beach Funeral Home at 12:45 a.m., according to Andrew Waller. The embalmer will come later in the trial to testify.
This story was originally published June 10, 2025 at 7:23 PM.
