Irby gets 40 years for murder

By Cindy Landrum  

JANUARY 7, 2010 10:07 p.m. (0)

A Greenville man was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in prison for killing a BMW paint shop supervisor in a spray of gunfire as she tried to speed out of her garage to get away from him.

Sheila Grayson had taken out a restraining order against Robert Emory Irby two weeks before she was killed in May 2008.

Irby pleaded guilty to murder during a hearing at the Greenville County Courthouse.

Flanked between family members holding a poster board filled with snapshots of happier times and a portrait of the BMW paint room supervisor who had her own motorcycle club, Grayson’s niece, Lakeshia Grayson, told Judge Ned Miller of  Grayson’s interest in motorcycles and her charity work.

“Our family is not the same any more. She was the heart of our family,” the niece told Judge Ned Miller.  “We don’t get together at Christmas any more.  It’s just not the same.”

Assistant Solicitor Mark Moyer said family members hid the restraining order from Irby because they feared it would make him angry.

The morning after Irby finally saw the complaint, he parked his car on Wade Hampton Boulevard and walked several blocks to Grayson’s house to wait until she left for work, Moyer said. When the garage door opened, he stepped inside and told Grayson he wanted to talk.

Grayson said ok, but Irby fired multiple shots from a borrowed .45 when she tried to back out of her garage, Moyer said.

Grayson’s car crashed into a concrete retaining wall across the street before rolling back across the road and crashing into a house, Moyer said.

When Irby turned himself in to Mauldin police later that morning, he had the restraining order and court date letter with him, Moyer said.

Lakeisha Irby said Grayson feared “this day was coming,” but didn’t tell family members because she didn’t want them to worry.

Irby’s defense attorney Bill Bannister said his client was not prone to violence and told him “he just lost it.”

“If there was anything in his entire life he could change, it would be this one act that one morning,” Bannister said. Bannister said Irby was taking care of his mother at the time of the incident. He told Bannister he thought his mother gave up and died.

Irby apologized to Grayson’s family then broke down crying as he said he was sorry to his family.