Category: News

WINNSBORO – The case against a Winnsboro man charged with shooting a dog is awaiting trial, while the dog – an 8- to 10-month old schnauzer – has made a full recovery and is also awaiting the end of legal proceedings before moving into a full-time home.

According to the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, Brian Floyd Smith, 41, of Chestnut Street, was arrested on March 23, a day after deputies responded to his home on reports of a man in the process of shooting a dog. When deputies arrived on March 22, Smith, armed with a shotgun, was spotted in his front yard. The shotgun was not loaded, but after questioning, Smith reportedly admitted to shooting a dog the previous afternoon, on March 21.

Smith reportedly told deputies he shot the dog, which had only recently been coming around his property, because the pup had attacked his mother’s Chihuahua a week earlier. Smith said he shot the dog with birdshot and left the injured dog in a doghouse in his back yard. Smith never contacted Animal Control, according to the incident report.

Lt. Lee Haney, an investigator with the Sheriff’s Office, said the dog was actually shot with buckshot, not birdshot, which inflicted serious injury to the pup. Haney said when Animal Control officers arrived at the scene later that afternoon, the dog was still in the doghouse behind Smith’s home. The dog suffered from what appeared to be a broken front leg, Haney said, and had buckshot wounds in its side and in both front legs.

The next morning, Haney said, the dog was taken by Animal Control to Carolina Place Animal Hospital in Fort Mill where its treatment ran up a $1,500 bill. Davis Anderson, Fairfield County Deputy Administrator, said the money to cover the bill was contributed by an out-of-state donor.

Smith was arrested and charged with felony ill treatment to animals. He is awaiting trial in the Sixth Circuit Court. The schnauzer remains in the care of the Animal Hospital, Anderson said, until the end of the trial. If the rightful owner is not located by then, he said, the pup will be put up for adoption.

A misdemeanor charge against a second Winnsboro man of dogs running at large was thrown out of Magistrates Court last month after County Animal Control failed to appear for the trial.

Jeff T. Truesdale, 50, of Forest Hills Drive, was issued a citation on April 11 after his pit bull broke free from its chain in his yard and attacked a neighbor’s dog. The neighbor’s dog, according to the incident report, suffered superficial wounds. The pit bull reportedly charged a Sheriff’s deputy on the scene and the deputy deployed his taser to fend off the animal. The pit bull was later restrained and taken by Animal Control.

The case came before a Magistrates judge on May 4, but was dismissed when no one from Animal Control appeared. Anderson said the case came to trial two days after David Brown, former Director of Animal Control, resigned, and the department was in transition.

Tuesday evening, Anderson said the job had been accepted by James H. Hill III, Assistant Director for Richland County Animal Care for the last six years.

JENKINSVILLE (June 30, 2016) – The Jenkinsville Water Company could be out as much as $10,000 after a bank deposit was allegedly stolen from the president of the company’s board of directors.

According to an incident report from the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office, board president Gregrey Ginyard picked up the bank deposit bag from the water company’s office at Highway 213 and Highway 215 around 9 a.m. on June 16. The bag contained approximately $10,000 in cash and checks, all of which came from water bill payments, the report states.

According to the report, Ginyard placed the bag inside his truck between the driver’s seat and center console and drove to his home on Lakeview Road. Ginyard reportedly told investigators that he parked his truck in his garage, leaving the deposit bag inside the truck, and did not leave his residence before noticing the bag missing. The truck, Ginyard told The Voice Tuesday, had been left unlocked.

Ginyard told The Voice that he had planned to go to the bank to make the deposit later that day to coincide with a trip to town he was scheduled to make that afternoon. When he got into his truck at around 2 p.m. to head to the bank, Ginyard said, he noticed the bank bag was missing.

Ginyard said he and an employee with the water company spent a large part of the remainder of the day looking for the bag. Ginyard said he thought it might have been possible that he had left the bag on the roof of his truck while still at the water company and the bag had blown off between there and his home. He said they searched the roads for the bag for some time before calling the Sheriff’s Office. According to the incident report, the call came in at 8:27 p.m.; however, Ginyard told The Voice he felt certain the call had been placed earlier.

Of the $10,000 estimated to have been inside the bag, Ginyard said only around $1,300 had been in cash. The rest, he said, was in the form of checks and money orders. When speaking with The Voice on Tuesday, Ginyard said he had not yet notified board members of the theft. The company had sent out letters, he said, to members who had paid with checks and money orders asking them to cancel those documents and send in new payment. Ginyard said the company was checking with its insurance provider to see if it would cover the cash loss.

“I guess I have to take full blame, since I didn’t lock the truck,” Ginyard said. “I’ve been doing the same thing for eight years and never had any problems. I won’t make that mistake again.”

WINNSBORO (June 29, 2016) – A Columbia woman died at Richland Memorial Hospital last week, a day after the car she was driving near the Richland County line was struck head-on.

Fairfield County Coroner Barkley Ramsey said Linda Martin, 62, of Havaland Circle, Columbia, died in the hospital at 1:05 p.m. on June 22. According to the S.C. Highway Patrol, Martin was driving a 1997 Mercury sedan south on Highway 321 near Candlewood Circle at approximately 2 p.m. on June 21 when she was struck head-on by a 2004 Chevrolet SUV being driven by Linda Cochran, 50, of Winnsboro.

The Highway Patrol said Cochran was traveling north on 321 behind another, unidentified vehicle. The unidentified vehicle stopped and was waiting to turn left on Candlewood Circle. Cochran swerved to avoid rear-ending the unidentified vehicle, clipped the vehicle, then continued left of center and struck Martin head-on.

The unidentified vehicle, although not at fault, fled the scene, the Highway Patrol said. The incident remains under investigation, and the Highway Patrol is searching for the unidentified vehicle for witness purposes.

Martin was transported by helicopter to Richland Memorial. She had been wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision. Martin’s grandson, who was a passenger in the Mercury, was transported by ambulance to Richland Memorial with non-life threatening injuries, Ramsey said. Cochran was also injured in the crash, the Highway Patrol said, and was taken to Richland Memorial.