News

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — Amir Golestan, 40, of Charleston, was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to 20 counts of wire fraud.

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Gerell Michael Hart-Smith, a/k/a “Rell,” 22, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in federal court to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

WASHINGTON – A South Carolina man and woman pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbia, South Carolina, to a federal hate crime, conspiracy and other charges.

FLORENCE, SOUTH CAROLINA — Charles Donald Butler, 57, of Myrtle Beach, was sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, and fentanyl, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Brian Leroy Watson, a/k/a “Lil B,” a/k/a “B,” 51, of Blythewood, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to Attempted Sex Trafficking of a Minor and Distribution of Heroin.  Ryan Darian Grover, 29, of Barnwell, was sentenced to more than 3 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to Human Trafficking Conspiracy.

WASHINGTON – The 40th and final defendant prosecuted as part of the District of South Carolina’s case against the Insane Gangster Disciples (IGD), a branch of the nationwide Folk Nation gang, was sentenced today.

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — Cory H. Fleming, 54, of Beaufort, was sentenced to nearly 4 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a federal conspiracy.

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA —Travis Anthony Mason, 52, of Aiken, was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison after pleading guilty to health care fraud.

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Jamie Adolfo Gonzalez-Farias, a/k/a “Father Gonzalez,” 68, of Laurens, a former Catholic priest, has pleaded guilty in federal court to Transportation of a Minor with Intent to Engage in Criminal Sexual Activity.  Specifically, Gonzalez-Farias admitted that he transported a minor victim from South Carolina to Florida with the intent to commit lewd and lascivious exhibition and lewd and lascivious molestation in violation of Florida state law. 

FLORENCE, SOUTH CAROLINA —Troy Benjamin Bittner, 54, of Myrtle Beach, has pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud and filing a false tax return.

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — Jerome Daniel Sanders, 44, of Saint George, was sentenced to 2 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to dealing privately manufactured firearms without a license and possessing a firearms silencer in violation of the National Firearms Act.

FLORENCE, SOUTH CAROLINA — Dominique Devonah Brand, 30, of Marion, was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences plus ten years in federal prison after being convicted of Kidnapping Resulting in Death, Carjacking Resulting in Death, and Using or Carrying a Firearm During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence in a Manner Constituting Murder.