Man Gets Life In Prison For Robbing Deputy's Wife & Another

A Spartanburg County jury on Friday convicted Noel Michael Lyles, 39, of armed robbery, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and grand larceny.

Judge Derham Cole then sentenced Lyles to life in prison without parole based on prior convictions for serious offenses.

In March, Lyles stole a woman's truck at a Lyman car wash. Six hours later, he was driving along Rainbow Lake Road when he saw a woman walking along the roadside, exercising. Prosecutors say he got out of the truck and threatened the woman, holding a 40-ounce beer bottle like a club. He then demanded she give him her jewelry and i-Pod. She refused.

"I can't repeat the words that he said, but he spewed out some vulgarities to her and she said 'No, I'm not gonna give you my rings," said 7th Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy. "He strikes her in the face, he hits her with the beer bottle, he knocks her down and begins to drag her towards the woods, and finally she relents and gives him her rings and i-Pod."

But Lyles probably could not have picked a worse victim. The woman is the husband of a Spartanburg County deputy and knew what to do in the situation.

"She kept her wits about her and got her tag number and gave officers a good description of Lyles his truck," said Sheriff Chuck Wright.

The tag and the suspect's description matched those given by the woman who had her truck stolen at the car wash. Duncan Police caught up to Lyles within minutes on Highway 290 and arrested him.

"He still had (the victim's) i-Pod in his pocket and her rings in the truck," said Gowdy.

Gowdy said he chose to seek a life without parole sentence because of Lyles' long criminal history.

"This isn't his second strike. This is his twenty-second strike," said Gowdy.

Lyles has 22 prior arrests on charges ranging from robbery to domestic violence to burglary and drug distribution. According to SLED records, in 1998 he was convicted on two counts of burglary and two counts of grand larceny and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He served 10.

He also has a pending robbery charge from an incident that occured two days prior to the truck theft and robbery. Police say he cornered a woman in an elevator in the parking garage of Spartanburg Regional Medical Center and told her, "we can do this the easy way or the hard way". She handed over her purse and the man fled.

"He has proven that he cannot be trusted to live as a peaceful member of society," said Gowdy. "He gets to spend the rest of his life in prison and we're going to turn our attention to the next Noel Lyles, whoever that might be."

Lyles offered no defense during his trial.

Click on the video tab to see Chris Cato's coverage of the sentencing.