Contact Person: Stacey Haynes (803) 929-3000
Columbia, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Beth Drake stated that Santonio Dwayne Ramsey, age 26, of Appling, Georgia, plead guilty in federal court to escape, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 751(a). Senior United States District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie of Columbia accepted the plea and will impose sentence after she has reviewed the presentence report, which will be prepared by the U.S. Probation Office.
Evidence presented in court 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 recently been transferred to the halfway house facility from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 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 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.
Ramsey faces a statutory maximum of five (5) years imprisonment and/or a fine of $250,000 on the escape charge. 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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