Georgia Gang Member Sentenced on Federal Escape Charge

Conact Person: Stacey D. Haynes (803) 929-3000

Columbia, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Beth Drake stated today that Santonio Dwayne Ramsey, age 26, of Appling, Georgia was sentenced in federal court after earlier pleading guilty to escape, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 751(a). Senior United States District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, of Columbia, sentenced Ramsey to 10 months imprisonment and a $100 special assessment fee.

Evidence presented in court during the earlier guilty plea hearing established that on the evening of July 19, 2016, the Alston Wilkes Society Residential Re-Entry Center, a contracted Federal Bureau of Prisons halfway house facility in Columbia, conducted a routine head count and found Ramsey absent. Ramsey, who had been transferred to the halfway house facility from the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Williamsburg, South Carolina, was serving the remainder of a federal sentence stemming from a 2010 conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm in the Southern District of Georgia. After determining that Ramsey was not in a local hospital or detention center, the Federal Bureau of Prisons declared him to be in escape status, notified the United States Marshals Service, and a federal escape charge was obtained. Ramsey, an admitted gang member, was arrested on state charges stemming from a domestic issue on November 2, 2016, in Columbia County, Georgia.  After initially providing deputies a fake name, deputies determined Ramsey’s true identity and the outstanding federal escape charge from South Carolina.

The case was investigated by the United States Marshals Service. Assistant United States Attorney Stacey D. Haynes of the Columbia office handled the case.

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