Contact Person: Bill Day (803) 929-3000
Columbia, South Carolina---- United States Attorney Beth Drake stated today that Christopher Lee Holton, age 29, of West Columbia, South Carolina was sentenced Thursday, March 2, 2017, in federal court in Columbia, South Carolina, for Failure to Register as a Sex Offender, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a). United States District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis, of Columbia, sentenced Holton to one year imprisonment to be followed by five years of Supervised Release.
Evidence presented at the guilty plea hearing established that Holton was convicted and sentenced for Molesting a Child and Sexual Misconduct with a Minor in Indiana. Holton's conviction resulted in his being required to register as a sex offender pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORNA). SORNA requires sex offenders to register with law enforcement agencies by providing contact information such as their address and to notify the agencies if they intend to move or the information changes. Holton registered as a sex offender in Indiana when he was released from prison in January 2015 but in August 2015 the Whitley County Sheriff's Office (Indiana) discovered that Holton had moved without notifying them. Holton was located and arrested in West Columbia in August 2016. The investigation revealed that Holton had been living in South Carolina for approximately eight months but did not register, when he arrived in South Carolina, as a sex offender as required by SORNA.
The case was investigated by agents of the United States Marshal Service (USMS) and Whitley County Sheriff's Office (Indiana). Assistant United States Attorney William E. Day II of the Columbia office prosecuted the case.
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