James Terry Roach was born on 18 February 1960. He grew up in South Carolina in a troubled environment and had a documented history of borderline intellectual disability, with an IQ measured between 75 and 80, and was reportedly suffering from the early effects of Huntington’s Chorea, a degenerative neurological disease. By his late teens, Roach had fallen under the influence of older, more dominant criminal peers, particularly Joseph Carl Shaw and Ronald Eugene Mahaffey.

On October 29, 1977, James Terry Roach and his accomplices, Joseph Carl Shaw and Ronald Eugene Mahaffey, began their day by drinking beer and using drugs. They spent the early afternoon driving around, looking to "find a girl to rape," as stated by Mahaffey.

The group stopped by a baseball field outside Columbia, South Carolina, where they approached a parked car. Roach aimed a .22 caliber rifle at the car's occupants, which included 14-year-old Carlotta Hartness and 17-year-old Thomas Taylor. Roach demanded money, and Taylor complied. Then, Shaw and Mahaffey exited the car, took Taylor’s keys, and forced Hartness into their vehicle.

After getting back into the car, Shaw told Roach, "OK, now!" Following this, Roach fired the rifle into the car, killing Thomas Taylor. They then drove Hartness to a nearby dirt road, where they demanded she undress. Hartness was forced to perform sexual acts and was raped multiple times by all three men. Afterward, Shaw asked who would kill her, and Roach volunteered.

Shaw ordered Hartness to lie face down, and after some hesitation, she complied. Roach shot her several times in the head, and Shaw shot her again afterward. They then buried the rifle, bullets, and Taylor's stolen wallet before returning to the baseball field to check if Taylor was dead.