Mikal Deen Mahdi was born on March 20, 1983, in Virginia, U.S. He grew up in a town called Lawrenceville, Virginia, and had one older brother. Mikal had a troubled and chaotic childhood. His father, Shareef, came from a dysfunctional family that had issues with alcoholism. Shareef did not finish high school but served in the Marine Corps. He later had an arranged marriage with a much younger girl when he was 27. Together, they had two sons, including Mikal. However, Mikal’s mother left the family when he was just three years old.

After his mother left, Mikal and his brother received little attention from their father. Shareef often got into trouble with the law. He struggled to keep a job and take care of his children. In 1991, when Mikal was eight years old, his father sent him and his brother to live with relatives. While Mikal's brother went to Texas, Mikal moved to Maryland to live with his uncle and aunt. There, he attended Scotts Branch Elementary School in Baltimore.

At school, Mikal was an active student but had many disciplinary problems. He often had difficulty respecting authority, and his reading and writing skills were below grade level. Reports from school noted that he had low self-esteem and struggled to have good relationships with his classmates. Mikal eventually dropped out of school in the third grade.

In 1992, due to a suicide threat, Mikal was admitted to a psychiatric facility. He stayed there for a couple of months before returning to live with his father and brother in Virginia. By December 1997, at the age of 14, Mikal committed his first crime, which was breaking and entering. He was later convicted of grand larceny and breaking and entering and spent some time in a juvenile facility.

After being released, he lived with his mother in Richmond. In 2001, he was convicted of assaulting a police officer and was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison. He was released in May 2004, just two months before he would go on to commit a series of severe crimes. By the age of 21, Mikal had completed his GED and attended community college.

Between July 14 and July 17, 2004, Mikal Deen Mahdi committed two murders across two southern states.

On July 14, 2004, Mahdi stole a firearm and a car in Virginia. He drove to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. There, on July 15, he entered a convenience store. The clerk, Christopher Jason Boggs, asked Mahdi for identification. Mahdi then shot Boggs in the face and fired a second shot at him as he fell. After the shooting, Mahdi tried to rob the cash register, but when that didn't work, he fled the store with a beer and drove to South Carolina.

On July 17, Mahdi arrived in Columbia, South Carolina. He carjacked a driver named Corey Pitts and drove to Calhoun County. He then hid in a farm owned by 56-year-old off-duty police officer James Myers. At the time, Myers was away at a celebration. When he returned, Mahdi held him at gunpoint with a rifle and shot him nine times. Mahdi then set Myers's body on fire and took several firearms from the farm before stealing Myers's truck to escape.

After these murders, a manhunt began for Mahdi. He was eventually arrested on July 21, 2004, in Florida, where police found him driving Myers's stolen truck. He surrendered after a brief chase. Later, he was extradited back to South Carolina to face charges for the murder of James Myers. He was also linked to the murder of Christopher Boggs in North Carolina, where he would eventually be charged as well.