I can’t imagine what it must feel like to find out that you aren’t your child’s biological parent despite being told you are. It has to be one of the most heartbreaking experiences a parent can go through. Being switched at birth is a common TV trope — it does happen, and is often a shocking experience for everyone involved. But imagine you find out something like this has happened because of a more nefarious reason, such as the case of a man believing his child is his, only to find out the child’s mom actually had an affair.
A South Carolina man, Stephen White, knows this experience firsthand, and his reaction to the news has him spending the next four decades of his life in jail.
White is owning up to what he did.
On April 20, 2026, White, 34, pleaded guilty to murder and possession of a weapon. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, Fox Carolina reported; 35 years were for the murder charge and five years were for the firearms charge. The judge ordered the sentences to run consecutively and that White receive credit for time served.
During the hearing, White’s lawyer said his client learned after his daughter was born that he wasn’t the father. Instead, Erin Lee Thomas was actually the father. When White found out, “something inside him snapped,” the lawyer said.
“One of the worst things that can happen to a person, either a father or mother, grandparent, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, or whatever it is, other than to find out that your child is deceased, is to find out that the child that you cared for as your own and thought was your own was actually not your own,” the lawyer said in a video of the hearing shared by Fox Carolina.
“Andrew’s wife had an affair on Andrew with Erin prior to them getting married. She came clean about that affair with Andrew, and he chose to forgive her,” he added in the video. “What he didn’t know was that she had resumed that relationship with Erin and became pregnant with Erin’s child.”
Thomas was killed more than a year ago.
The incident happened at 3 p.m. on August 12, 2024, Fox Carolina reported at the time. According to the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office, White hit 34-year-old Thomas with his car and then shot him. Thomas was taken to a hospital, where he later died.
“I think it had that effect on everyone who comes to this courthouse and works every day because you just never know…it is tragic what we ended up seeing and for all the attorneys and courthouse staff and deputies that were in the parking lot that witnessed this it was a traumatic event for them too so it’s not something you easily forget,” solicitor David Stumbo said in court, per Fox Carolina.
According to a news release from the 8th Circuit Solicitor’s Office released on April 21, 2026, both men were leaving the Laurens County Courthouse after a child custody hearing. After White left his attorney, he got into his car and intentionally hit Thomas, who was “some distance away” in his own car.
White intentionally and maliciously killed the other man.
Thomas received serious injuries that included a broken leg and a broken pelvis. As Thomas lay on the ground unable to get away, White stood over him with a gun.
“After the first round misfired and jammed, White chambered another round and shot the victim in the head,” the release noted.
Officers arrived quickly and White discarded the weapon, surrendering himself to law enforcement.
“This was a calculated and deeply personal act of violence that unfolded in a place where families are supposed to find peaceful resolution to disputes—not further heartache and tragedy,” Stumbo shared in the release. “Stephen White chose to maliciously take a life in the place that many of us come to work to serve the public every day and in the process took two father figures—the victim and himself—out of the life of an innocent child permanently.”
