Attorney talks about life after murder for hire was thwarted by police

Conway attorney Doug Thornton, who according to Horry County police was the intended target in a murder for hire plot, tells News13 he’s trying to get his life back to normal.

A fellow attorney and former office mate of Thornton’s, Irby Walker was arrested late last week and charged with solicitation for murder.

At Walker’s bond hearing Friday, 15th Judicial Circuit Court solicitor Greg Hembree said there are audio and video recording that show Walker tried to hire someone to kill Thornton and Thornton’s staff.

Monday, Thornton spoke with News13’s Thema Ponton at his office in downtown Conway.

Thornton said once many people found out what happened, they were shocked, and called to wish him and his staff well and wanted to know if there was anything they could do.

Thornton said there isn’t anything anybody can do, not that he can think of, other than keep them in their prayers and hope for the best.

At Walker’s bond hearing Thornton said he suggested to Hembree that a GPS ankle monitor be part of his release conditions.

Thornton said he knew about the monitoring system from previous cases and thought it would help monitor Walker’s patterns and location.  “In the final assessment I realized, he’s trying to hire someone to do this and not likely to be coming around me himself at all so i don’t know if it does any good, but I thought it was appropriate at the very least.“

Thornton said he and his staff spent their Monday catching up on work during what turned out to be another busy, but different Monday.  “It’s hard for me still to register that there’s anything real about this, it’s hard to register there’s really a threat and if it weren’t for my children, probably a whole lot less so, but I can’t ignore it, you know primarily because they are involved and of course my staff too.“

Thornton said he was a little concerned when he was driving into work Monday that his staff wouldn’t be there, but he said thankfully they came in to work.  “I really want to get it out of my life, I would like to stop having interviews, and I’d like to stop reading about it, hearing about it and be able to get my life back and my children’s lives back and my staff to feel safe.“

Thornton said he doesn’t like being a victim and said he now has a deeper appreciation for other crime victims and that people cannot imagine what he’s going through, until it happens to them.  “I just have to hope and pray that now that this is out in the open, that this will be the end of it, I hope it is.“

Thornton said Walker totally disrupted his life, he wants justice to be done and for Walker to get whatever jail time that will come if it.  “Beyond that you know I hope that he can get some help and whatever it is that caused him to think this way and do these things, he can get out of his life.  He has a family too.“

Thornton, who now does not let anybody into his office he doesn’t recognize, said he plans to upgrade his security measures.