CONWAY, S.C. (Court TV) — Nearly four years after the body of Gregory Rice was found wrapped in a tarp and dumped in a South Carolina river, his ex-girlfriend, who reported him missing, is set to stand trial for his murder.
Meagan Jackson, 40, a former body transporter and the mother of Rice’s four children, is accused of plotting to kill him with her then-lover, Christopher Dontell, a former Horry County deputy coroner. The two were having an affair at the time of Rice’s death, and both were initially charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and kidnapping.
Meagan Jackson sits in court during opening statements on June 10, 2025. (Court TV)
Rice was last seen on Oct. 2, 2020. According to court records, Jackson reported him missing three days later. His body was discovered by fishermen on Nov. 8, in the Little Pee Dee River in Marion County, wrapped in a tarp, secured with zip ties, and weighed down by a cinder block. An autopsy revealed he had been shot five times.
Dontell was scheduled to go to trial in December 2023, but just before jury selection began, he entered a guilty plea to conspiracy and accessory after the fact. As part of a plea deal, the murder charge was dropped in exchange for his cooperation. He is now expected to testify against Jackson.
Prosecutors say surveillance footage from a Lowe’s store shows Dontell purchasing the tarp, zip ties, and cement blocks later found with Rice’s body. Cell phone data, license plate readers, and witness interviews led investigators to arrest both Dontell and Jackson.
At the time of the murder, Jackson was pregnant with Dontell’s child. Dontell, who was married with two children, worked closely with Jackson in the death care industry—transporting and processing remains for funeral homes and the coroner’s office.
The two were initially released on bond but returned to jail after violating a no-contact order by communicating with one another.
Jackson has maintained her innocence since her arrest. Dontell faces up to 15 years in prison for conspiracy and 5 years for accessory. His sentencing will take place after Jackson’s trial.
DAILY TRIAL UPDATES
DAY 4 – 6/13/25
- State called it’s final witness: Lt. Benjamin Wells/Horry County Sheriff’s Office/Digital Crimes Expert
- Introduced results of the phone extraction from Meagan Jackson’s phone.
- He highlighted a conversation he found between Meagan Jackson and co-defendant Chris Dontell where Meagan said that she was ready for Greg to suffer a popped tire on the highway or to have his brake lines cut, to which Chris responded that he was too.
- Testified that the 10 images attached to an anonymous email alerting Erica Dontell of the affair and Meagan’s pregnancy, came from Meagan’s phone minutes before that email was sent.
- The final item from the phone was a long text thread between Meagan and Greg just before the murder, where he blamed her for making him lose his job and complained that she made everything difficult. At the end of about 6 pages of printed text messages, Greg wrote: “All I can say is wait for the storm.”
- The defense on cross tried to get the witness to talk about where people were during these various messages, and he kept saying he had no idea, he could only say where the devices were.
DAY 3 – 6/12/25
- Forensic pathologist Dr. Susan Presnell testified to her autopsy of Gregory Rice, which was performed before his remains had been positively identified. She described Rice’s brain as “liquified” and said that his injuries indicated he was shot five to seven times, with one bullet found where his brain would have been.
- Testified that Greg Rice was shot once in the head and once in the chest, each of which could have been fatal. Twice in the left hip and once in the right thigh.
- Case Brittain handled the cross and asked Presnell about how a body would decompose if it was frozen first or put in the ocean instead of the brackish water where he was found.
- Erica Dontell, Christopher Dontell’s wife, testified to learning about her husband’s affair.
- They are still married, today is their anniversary
- She was clearly upset and emotional throughout however she managed not to completely break down in tears
- She described how she met Meagan Jackson when Meagan took over Chris’s old job transporting bodies for the coroner’s office
- Meagan moved into her neighborhood with her kids (but not Greg Rice) shortly after she and Chris had moved there
- Her family and kids became close to Meagan and her kids after Covid happened and they spent lots of time together
- Meagan told her about how Greg Rice was an abusive husband and used drugs
- Said she first learned of the affair via anonymous texts sent to her phone telling her that Meagan Jackson was pregnant with her husband’s child.
- Ken Marcus of the Horry County Police Dept. took the stand before Christopher Dontell
- Marcus testified about direct cell-phone and cell tower geo-location data that placed Meagan Jackson and Chris Dontell together on the night prosecutors say she killed Greg Rice.
- On cross, he was quizzed about the content of the text messages exchanged between Meagan Jackson and Christopher Dontell on the night Greg Rice disappeared and in the months prior.
- Confirmed that he was scheduled to testify in Dontell’s trial last December before Dontell agreed to a plea deal.
- Marcus was questioned about Dontell’s changing stories about how Greg Rice died; and the fact that Greg Rice knew about Meagan’s affair with Christopher Dontell and was texting Dontell’s wife,
- Erica, anonymously and told her that Meagan was pregnant with Christopher Dontell’s child.
- Christopher Dontell arrived in the courtroom wearing shackles and took the stand, where he said he pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and conspiracy in Rice’s death..
- Christopher said he was afraid of Jackson and that he witnessed her murder Rice. He said that she then threatened to do the same thing to him.
- Christopher described the murder, saying that he was driving Jackson in her van to go see Rice at her request, despite the fact that he did not want to do so. Upon seeing Greg walking along the road, Christopher said Meagan opened the car door and shot Rice several times before demanding Christopher assist her in disposing of the body.
- He described putting Greg into the back of Meagan’s van (a Honda Oddessy with her equipment that she used to transport bodies in it).
- They took him to the Myrtle Beach funeral home and put him in the cooler.
- Went to Meagan’s house after and he sat with her daughters as they watched TV and Meagan took a shower.
- The next day she told him he had to deal with it and dump him somewhere outside of the county.
- He went to Lowe’s and later that night dropped him into the PeeDee river.
- Christopher apologized to Rice and Jackson’s daughter, Savannah, who was sitting in the gallery.
- Cross-examination:
- Asked repeatedly about the affairs he had during his marriage.
- Continued to have sex with Meagan after Greg Rice was killed.
- Asked why if he was so worried about his family he had unprotected sex with Meagan.
- Defense mocked him for being scared of “that little woman.”
DAY 2 – 6/11/25
- VIDEO: SC v. Meagan Jackson | Coroner Affair Murder Trial – Day 2
- WATCH: Meagan Jackson’s Defense Asks For Mistrial Citing Jurisdiction
- Testimony from law enforcement experts who analyzed Meagan Jackson’s cell phone records constructed a time line showing the defendant with her lover Christopher Dontell in the hours before and after Gregory Rice went missing.
- The cell phone records helped to locate and corroborate surveillance footage that captured the two together at a nature preserve and a restaurant before she called Rice and appeared to show up at his apartment complex at 10:00 pm.
- A cell phone data analyst said Gregory Rice’s cell phone records indicate the last person he spoke to before he disappeared on the night of October 2, 2020, was Jackson, who left Rice’s apartment complex at 10:06 pm.
- Around the same time that Jackson left, Rice’s phone is traveling in the same direction as her phone to the Myrtle Beach Funeral Home where the phones stay till 10:36 AM. The phones are on the move again this time away from the funeral home, and at 11:06 pm Rice’s phone ceases activity, the records indicate that the phones of Jackson, Dontell and Rice are all in the same area.
- The next day cell phone records and surveillance video capture Chris Dontell at a Lowe’s Home Improvement store with a shopping cart filled carrying, zip ties, tarp, and a cinder block. Investigators say similar items were used to conceal the victim’s body.
- In the early hours of October 4, after the purchase of what prosecutors call the ‘murder dump kit,’ Dontell’s cell phone pinged a tower in the area where the victim’s body was recovered.
DAY 1 – 6/10/25
- VIDEO: SC v. Meagan Jackson | Coroner Affair Murder Trial – Day 1
- Prosecutor Leigh Waller opened for the state, warning jurors not to be deceived by the defendant, as Meagan Jackson may ‘look meek and mild’ but was rather a ‘master manipulator,’ who lured the father of her children to his death and then manipulated law enforcement and her lover to cover her tracks.
- Defense attorney Case Brittain told jurors that he expected codefendant Chris Dontell to point the finger at his client after pleading guilty to conspiracy to avoid a murder charge. He noted that Dontell had everything to lose by his affair with Jackson, while his client had no motive having ended her relationship with the victim.
- Meagan Jackson’s daughter with Gregory Rice, Savannah Rice, broke down in tears and was shaking as she described her father’s disappearance and death.
- Savannah said her parents had a rocky relationship and had previously separated and had struggled with infidelity.
- Savannah learned of her mother’s affair with Dontell after hearing them have loud sex in their bedroom.
- Meagan Jackson reported Gregory Rice missing, but law enforcement said her demeanor in interviews did not reflect any emotion.
- Savannah recalled a conversation with her mother, who she said was drunk at the time, after her father disappeared. Her sister had been misbehaving and Savannah said Jackson told her, “I hope what happened to your dad happens to your sister.”
- Cell phone records of Gregory Rice eventually led police to a location that had surveillance video that captured Jackson and Dontell together.
- The discovery of Gregory Rice’s body wrapped in a tarp, bound by ratcheted straps, and weighed down by cinder blocks prompted police to search home improvement stores for surveillance video.
- They discovered video of Dontell at a Lowe’s with a shopping cart containing the same items that were used to conceal Rice’s body. Prosecutors referred to this as the ‘murder dump kit.’
