Former SC coroner aided mistress in murder. What he got for dumping the body
Former Horry County deputy coroner Christopher Dontell admitted to throwing a body in the Little Pee Dee River in 2020 out of fear his mistress would kill him. On Monday, he was sentenced for his involvement in the murder.
Dontell, 42, was given the maximum sentence of 20 years for his crimes. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact. The defense’s request for a five year probation was denied.
Meagan Jackson, with whom Dontell was having an affair, was found guilty of murdering her ex-boyfriend Greg Rice, the father of her four children, last month.
Dontell testified against Jackson during her trial, saying that he aided in the murder because he feared she would kill him if he didn’t. Jackson faces life in prison after being found guilty of the killing, and now, Dontell stares down his punishment as well.
“To simply keep saying ‘I’m sorry’ just doesn’t feel right,” Dontell said with tears in his eyes as he prepared to accept his punishment.
Rice went missing in October 2020, and was found by fishermen a month later, wrapped in a tarp in the Little Pee Dee River. Dontell admitted that he carried out Jackson’s request to dump the body in the river, pleading guilty in December to accessory after the fact and criminal conspiracy, The Sun News previously reported.
During the sentencing, Dontell said that he “chose to overlook everything bad” in Jackson because of the money and time she was dedicating to his family. He claimed that Jackson said on multiple occasions that she wanted to kill Rice, her kids, and him, but he thought nothing of it.
Now, he said he wishes to provide closure to Rice and Jackson’s children in whatever ways he can.
Family members speak out
During Dontell’s sentencing, Rice and Jackson’s daughter, Savannah Rice, read a statement about the toll the crime has taken on she and her siblings.
Savannah Rice said that because of Dontell and Jackson’s actions, she and her siblings would never be able to “live a normal life.” She added that Dontell consoled her when her father was missing, which made the news of his involvement in his death sting even more.
“He held me as I cried,” she said, wringing her hands as Dontell looked on.
She requested the maximum sentence for Dontell.
Dontell’s wife, Erica Dontell, also shared a statement with the court, speaking to the man Dontell was before his involvement with Jackson.
With shaking voice and hands, Erica Dontell explained why she chose to stay with her husband despite the crime that she said has upheaved the life of she and their two children.
She recalled the good times spent with her husband, including his “questionable” choices in karaoke music and the way he adored being a father to their children.
When Jackson became involved in the family’s affairs, gaining their trust with money and company during the COVID-19 pandemic, Erica Dontell said she became “the literal Antichrist” to the Dontells.
“Life was going to be perfect, and she was going to be the one to thank. Until it wasn’t,” Erica Dontell said. She went on to explain that she had to move out of her “dream home” because she felt unsafe with Jackson living just a street away, where she’d moved after becoming involved with the Dontells.
She also said that Jackson used marital struggles between herself and Christopher Dontell that Erica Dontell had confided in her to begin the affair that ultimately led her husband to his current fate.
Christopher Dontell became teary-eyed during his wife’s statement, looking up at the ceiling and clenching his jaw.
Dontell admitted to dumping the body
In Dontell’s testimony during Jackson’s trial, he said that he was with Jackson, going shooting and out to dinner, when Jackson said she needed to see Rice. Dontell said that Jackson did not say why she needed to see her ex, but that he then drove her in her vehicle to Rice’s Arrowhead apartment complex to meet him.
When the pair found Rice standing outside, Dontell said Jackson had him pull up next to the man where she then opened the door and fired a gun at him multiple times. According to witness testimony, Rice had gunshot wounds in his head, chest, hip and leg, The Sun News previously reported.
Dontell claimed that Jackson then yelled at him to help her load the body into her vehicle, after which they took him to a Myrtle Beach funeral home. They stored the body in a cooler, and Dontell dumped the body the next evening.
He then went with Jackson to her house where she took a shower and he chatted with her daughter.
Dontell said that Jackson warned him if he told anyone about what they’d done, she’d kill him. Later, he said the threat resurfaced when she told him to dispose of the body, and he tried to convince her not to.
Eventually though, Dontell gave in and headed to Lowe’s Home Improvement on Oct. 3, purchasing a tarp, ratchet straps and a cinder block to aid him in the disposal. These items were found on Rice’s body when it was discovered.
Dontell and Rice worked as body transporters for years before Dontell became a coroner in 2020.
He said he lied about Jackson killing her ex for years because he feared she would seek retribution by harming his family.
Dontell cheated on his wife, Erica, with Jackson beginning in late 2019, according to his accounts. Erica Dontell also testified during Jackson’s trial that Jackson helped the Dontell family during tough financial times, and that their two families would hang out amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Jackson became close to the Dontell family, and the families’ children would frequently hang out together.
During Jackson’s trial, cell phone data put Jackson and Dontell together for much of the night of Rice’s death. Messages between the two of them indicated that Jackson suspected Rice was about to reveal the affair between she and Dontell, after he discovered that she was pregnant with Dontell’s baby.
When Jackson sent a message saying she was “all for popping a tire on the highway or cuttin a break line (sic) on him,” Dontell’s contact in her phone replied “Unfortunately I am too now.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2025 at 10:58 AM.
