FAIRFIELD COUNTY – The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office is
asking for the public’s help in locating Joshua L Williamson. He is wanted for
Attempted Murder.
On Oct. 3, Williamson shot his father with a rifle and
choked his mother until she became unconscious, according to the Sheriff’s
office.
Williamson left the scene driving a black 2000 Chevy Camaro
with T-Tops, S.C tag # SPH 382. He lives in Florence, SC and frequents Aiken
County.
His parents live in Fairfield County in the area of Lake
Wateree where the incident took place. Williamson is to be considered armed and
dangerous. He is described as a white
male, 5 feet 11 inches tall, approximately 190 pounds, black hair and blue
eyes.
If anyone has information regarding his location, they are
asked to contact the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office (803-635-4141) or
Crimestoppers (1-CRIMESC or 1-888-274-6372).
Anyone who sees Williamson, is urged to immediately call
911.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY – With a $1.8 million land deal being proposed by Fairfield County, a partnership between the county and the Town of Blythewood is on track to check two big items off of local wish lists: a much-needed wastewater treatment plant and a ballfield complex for youth sports teams.
Fairfield County Council Chair Neil Robinson said both
projects are part of a long-range vision that could turn Interstate-77’s Exit
32 in Fairfield County into a new hotspot for development.
Fairfield County Administrator Jason Taylor agreed, adding
that if all the pieces come together, it could be a great benefit to the
citizens of both Fairfield County and Blythewood.
“The way you grow a community is not just by shuffling money
around inside the county or town; you need to bring in outside dollars.” Taylor
said, touting both the tournament-hosting potential of a sports complex and the
potential draw of adjacent commercial development made possible by the
wastewater treatment plant.
“There’s a synergy here – one thing helps build upon the other, and all those things help the critical thing that we’re focused on here [with this project], the wastewater treatment plant,” he said.
The need for increased wastewater capacity has been high on
Fairfield’s priority list recently as most of its existing capacity is already
in use. The county has brought in considerable new industry and accompanying
new jobs during the last three years or so, leaving Fairfield with only about
30,000 gallons of wastewater capacity – a fact that limits current potential
for both industrial and other types of development all over the county, and is
now prompting some industrial prospects to look elsewhere, taking their jobs
with them.
“Adding more wastewater capacity is key to the future
development of commercial and residential in the county. Without the new
capacity, the creation of new jobs, shopping opportunities and residential
development will be severely limited,” Taylor said.
“We had to find a site for the plant that has direct access
to a stream that can handle the expected effluent and will not require a
long-distance pipeline to a discharge site,” he said. The county settled on
property on Peach Road at the intersection of Cook Road just west of Exit 32 in
Fairfield County, just one exit north of Blythewood.
As it turned out, the property for sale is about 385 acres,
much larger and more expensive than what’s needed for the plant.
Enter Blythewood, where the need for ballfields has become a high priority with the exponential growth of the community. Building a sports complex was something newly elected Mayor Bryan Franklin talked about a lot in his campaign last fall. Blythewood, home of the popular Blythewood Youth Baseball & Softball League (BYSBL), has the revenue potential from accommodation and hospitality tax to purchase property for a sports complex but has not so far found a suitable/affordable site.
The Plan
The proposal is for the county to develop the wastewater
treatment plant and an extensive recreation park on 225+/- acres it purchased
on the south side of the property, and Blythewood is considering purchasing
60+/- acres in the center of the property for the sports complex. The current
land owner, Joseph Richardson, would retain about 100+/- acres on the north
side of the property for private multi-use development, including commercial,
possibly with apartments above.
In addition, the county portion of the park – a site not
suited for industrial development – will include the wastewater treatment plant
concealed in a heavily wooded area and a 50-acre pond that, Taylor said, is a
potential showplace, ideally suited for fishing, kayaking, canoeing, and maybe
a water’s edge event venue as well as a network of recreational trails.
“Because the wastewater treatment plant is located on the
property, it could reduce development costs on the site as much as $2-$3
million since they won’t have to run pipes, acquire easements and install pump
stations,” Fairfield County Economic Development Director Ty Davenport added.
Taylor said a partnership between Fairfield and Blythewood
and the landowner just makes sense.
Blythewood on Board
Franklin agrees.
“It’s just too good of an opportunity for us to pass up,”
Franklin told The Voice. “While our council has not yet voted on this plan,
we’ve discussed it in executive session and I know that all of our council
members are excited about it. We’re looking forward to moving on it.”
That move, however, could take as much as six to eight
months, he said.
“Blythewood doesn’t have a big budget, but we could pay for
the land over a three-year period of time. We just need time to assess it, get
our funds together, and let Fairfield get the zoning on the property.”
Having grown up in Blythewood, Franklin said he has fond
memories of playing on the three BYSBL fields when he was young. Those fields,
today, can barely accommodate the number of kids who want to play. Franklin
said he would like to see the town have a state-of-the-art facility like this
to support the BYSBL while also bringing substantial revenue to the town.
“Located on I-77 in the center of the state, the sports complex is going to attract kids of all sports from all areas of the state,” Franklin said. “And the commercial area is what the residents of Blythewood want to see – more restaurants, more things to do and close to home – just five miles from our Blythewood exit.”
A Mutual Benefit
“Both Blythewood and Fairfield will benefit from what the
other has in the park,” Davenport said. “For instance, Fairfield would have
joint use of Blythewood’s sports complex and neither would have to pay fees. A
rendering of the complex features up to eight baseball fields and five
soccer/football fields among other amenities that might include a hotel with
balconies for viewing games.”
From a development standpoint, Taylor said, the wastewater
treatment plant and sports complex projects are just the beginning. In addition
to meeting current needs, pairing needed infrastructure with a tourism-drawing
amenity will promote good, sustainable development at Exit 32.
That could help the county land a large manufacturing facility, Taylor said, such as an auto plant, just down the road at the future Exit 32 megasite. Such a facility, he said, would be a stable provider of jobs for the county and could also help attract the kind of planned, commercial development on Richardson’s acreage that might be anchored by a major sporting goods store and include hotels, restaurants and retail, which would bring in revenue during sports tournaments as well as serving Interstate travelers.
Annexation
Because of the proximity of the property to the Town of
Blythewood along Boney Road, the option is on the table for Blythewood to annex
the entire 385 acres and reap considerable revenue from not only the sports
complex, but the accommodation and hospitality taxes generated by the hotels
and restaurants, as well as franchise fees, business license fees and building
permits from the commercial development.
The long term plan could be extremely beneficial for the
citizens of both Blythewood and Fairfield County and would certainly raise the
fortunes of all of the residents of Fairfield County on many levels, including
jobs and new residential neighborhoods, Taylor said.
“The county would collect property taxes on all three
parcels. The site generates about $4,000 annually in taxes now,” he said. “A
single business in the commercial section could bring in well over $100,000
annually in property taxes. The property tax potential for the county is in the
millions”.
County officials say the several hundred acres adjacent to
the 385 acres are prime for the kind of nature-based housing subdivisions that
have replaced golf courses as the preferred type of residential development
across the country.
Davenport said the Exit 32 interchange, itself, is a
valuable asset with I-77, a major travel artery between Columbia and Charlotte,
a continuous resource.
“An interstate exit like Exit 32 costs about $50-75 million,
a resource that we need to take advantage of,” he said.
Master Planned
“I would really like to see this development taken to the
next level,” Taylor said. “We hope to develop a master plan and development
agreement on top of everything else, including tax incentives and other
incentives that make it more desirable for someone to come in and develop the
site to its best and highest use.
“We’re not just dreaming here,” Taylor said. “I think all of
this can be reality. We want to create a traditional, attractive community in
the commercial section that may have upstairs apartments, and where people can
easily take advantage of the proposed parks and the easy access to Columbia on
the interstate. We want to be proactive and get ahead of this [growth at Exit
32] with a development that is well thought out and sustainable.
“All this is driven by the wastewater treatment plant,” he
said. “We have to have the plant to support the future megasite just six miles
up the road. And when that plant hits, this 385 acres is going to explode.
Commerce has told us we have to be ready because when it does hit, it will be
hard at that point to catch up. I think that if we do this public-private
partnership right, everything will work.”
“At this point, of course, it’s just a proposal, a
public-private partnership between the county and the landowner to spur
development at Exit 32 to support the wastewater treatment plant and the plant
supporting growth, hand in hand,” Taylor said. “The county is also trying to
work with Blythewood to accomplish some of the goals that their mayor has set,
such as annexation and recreation. We can all three win here because our interests
are aligned to have improved access for all of our citizens to quality of life
amenities such as new parks, shopping options and residential choices – all the
things we can potentially have on that 385 acres,” he said.
Though there are still a lot of details that remain to be worked out on the project, all parties are hopeful.
Timeline
The timeline, of course, will be measured in years. Robinson
said 3-4 years is realistic for the $32 million plant to go through permitting
and construction, after which its capacity will be available to serve new
development in the county, both commercial and residential.
In addition to potential state funding contributing to the
plant’s construction, Robinson expects to pull $5 million from county coffers,
cover $8-10 million with the passage of a new penny sales tax, and cover the
rest with revenue generated by end users.
While Robinson said the penny tax is the most effective way
to fund the plant, the tax is dependent on voter approval on Nov. 3.
“With the penny tax, council wouldn’t have to raise property
taxes,” Robinson said.
The wastewater treatment plant’s two-million-gallon
capacity, expandable to four million gallons, is expected to serve Fairfield
County’s needs for at least 20 years.
“The wastewater treatment
plant has to happen. Without it, Fairfield County will have very limited growth
potential in the future; but when it’s built, the county will be in a great
position to welcome new growth, and to more fully realize its potential,”
Taylor said.
Robinson agreed.
“While people don’t necessarily love a wastewater treatment facility, and paying for it with a penny tax doesn’t give people a warm fuzzy feeling, they love what it brings – jobs, retail, industrial and residential growth, recreation, all of that and, quite frankly, lower property taxes in the end,” Robinson said.
The county has scheduled a virtual town hall meeting for 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 6 to explain the plan and answer any questions from the public. To register for the webinar meeting, go to: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sbFWi2blQxSOIVks-WpNdw.
BLYTHEWOOD – The rezoning of the Red Gate Farms property, a large undeveloped parcel near the heart of town, will go back to the planning commission Monday night after a convoluted vote by the Blythewood Town Council.
The reason was to allow time for the new owners of the
property, who purchased it in June, to come up with a plan and request zoning
consistent with their plans to develop it.
The land, roughly 143 acres on Blythewood Road, between
Muller and Syrup Mill roads, is currently designated as a PD (Planned
Development) district, a site-specific zoning designation for mixed-use
developments.
It’s been that way for more than a decade after a developer
had designed a mixed-use project to include 232 houses, 300 apartment units,
and 36 acres of commercial development, but never moved forward with
construction.
Town officials noted during the meeting that any development
other than the original mixed-use plan would require rezoning.
At its Sept. 3 meeting, the Blythewood Planning Commission
voted to recommend rezoning of the property to D-1, a zoning designation for
large parcels on the fringe of urban growth where the character of development
has not yet been determined.
The commission was acting on a town ordinance that requires
rezoning to be initiated when projects with PD zoning do not move forward after
two years. The Town officials did not appear to be aware at that time that the
property, which was owned by Arthur State Bank for several years, had recently
changed hands.
“A rezoning of this property has been discussed ad nauseum
over the past 2-3 years,” said Town Council Member Donald Brock, a former
planning commission chairman who recalled some of the meetings leading up to
the commission’s recent recommendation.
During a public hearing on the rezoning at Monday’s town council
meeting, town resident Marshall Dinkins spoke on behalf of the property owners,
his parents, Byron and Susan Dinkins, asking that council defer the vote for 90
days to allow them to decide how they wanted to develop the property.
Dinkins suggested the family might want to rezone the
frontage along Blythewood Road as commercial and the rear of the property D-1.
Town Councilman Eddie Baughman expressed support for the
Dinkins family’s request, citing their history as longtime residents of
Blythewood.
“I think the Dinkins have always been fine businesspeople in
this town, always cared about this town,” Baughman said. “I think we need to
work with them.”
Mayor Bryan Franklin agreed with Baughman.
Brock argued that, nonetheless, rezoning to D-1 would put
the property in an appropriate holding pattern and establish a “clean slate”
upon which to make a plan for rezoning. This, he said, would be preferable to
leaving a long-defunct mixed-use development plan sitting on the books.
He assured the Dinkins family that, despite the coincidental
timing, the rezoning was not personal – and the intent of an approval of D-1
was for them to come back before the planning commission with a fresh plan and
a fresh zoning request of their town.
Town administrator interjected that if the Town voted to
rezone the property to D-1 as recommended by the Commission, that it would take
a couple of for a second reading and
then for the Dinkins to come back to the planning commission for a new zoning
designation. If they denied the recommendation to rezone to D-1, the family
could apply to the commission next month (or the next) for the zoning they want
and move on, then for a decision of the town council, saving them two to three
months of time to be rezoned.
Mayor Bryan Franklin, noting Cook’s timeline involved with
rezoning to D-1, agreed that it would delay the opportunity for the Dinkins
family to work with the planning commission, requiring them to wait months
through the process before their work could begin.
“What we’re talking about is saving time,” he said,
insisting that rezoning to D-1 is not necessary to create a “clean slate,”
which can instead be accomplished with a rezoning request initiated by the
Dinkins family based on how they’d like to develop the land.
The council voted 4-1 to deny the rezoning recommended by
the planning commission, indicating an expectation that the Dinkins family
would work with the planning commission on a new rezoning request. Brock voted
against.
WINNSBORO – A person walking on S.C. Highway 213, was killed
when hit by a pickup truck early Sunday morning, according to South Carolina
Highway Patrol.
Jaylan Hamilton, 20, of Mt. Holly, N.C. is the name of the
pedestrian who was struck.
The crash happened at about 2 a.m., near Fairview Church
Road, Master Trooper Brandon Bolt said.
Hamilton was reported walking west in the roadway of S.C.
213 when hit by a 2019 Dodge pickup truck that was also heading west, according
to Bolt.
Hamilton was taken to an area hospital and died, Bolt said.
The driver and a passenger in the truck were wearing seat
belts and were not hurt in the crash, according to Bolt who said Hamilton was
not wearing reflective clothing.
No other injuries were reported.
The crash is being investigated by the Highway Patrol.
This story was updated September 28, 2020 at 9:23 p.m.
COLUMBIA – By 46 votes, Jesica Mackey won a special Democratic primary runoff in Richland County Council’s District 9 on Tuesday, and has most likely secured the seat in the upcoming November election. There is no Republican challenger.
Mackey, a public relations executive, with 631 votes (52
percent) bested Jonnieka Farr, a business analyst, with 585 votes (48 percent).
A portion of the far eastern side of Blythewood, including
part of LongCreek Plantation subdivision, is represented by District 9.
During the Sept. 9 primary, Farr finished with 39 percent of
the vote to Mackey’s 34 percent, setting up a runoff. Cody Pressley finished
third, and Angela Addison finished fourth.
Mackey will take the seat that was previously held by
Councilman Calvin “Chip” Jackson who died unexpectedly on Aug. 7, after winning
the Democratic Primary in June over Farr in a runoff. Jackson was finishing his
first term on council. He had previously served as chairman of the Richland Two
school board.
The Richland County election commission will certify the
race on Thursday.
WINNSBORO
– Willie Mobley, Jr. was the driver in a single vehicle that crashed on Highway
213 in Fairfield County, according to Fairfield County Coroner Chris Hill.
Mobley’s vehicle veered off the right side of the road, over
corrected, then struck a fence and a tree. He was not wearing a seatbelt and
was ejected from the vehicle, Hill state. Mobley and was pronounced deceased on
the scene.
The accident remains under investigation by the Fairfield
County Coroner’s Office and the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
Blythewood track and field stars Paris Asmond, Peyton Heightower, Madison Ross and Olivia Taylor | Contributed
SATELLITE BEACH, FL – Four Richland School District Two students won a national title in Track and Field. Paris Asmond, Peyton Hightower, Madison Ross, and Olivia Taylor became the youngest group of females from South Carolina to win a National Championship for the 4×400 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) relay race.
Ross, a sixth-grader, and seventh-graders Asmond and Taylor
attend Blythewood Middle School. Hightower is a sixth-grader at Kelly Mill
Middle School. The group is a part of Team Blaze Track Club.
The 2019-2020 season marks the first year that this group
ran together as a relay team. Despite losing much of the season due to
Covid-19, Asmond, Hightower, Ross, and Taylor began training at home and in the
community.
On Friday, Aug. 8, the group traveled to Satellite Beach, Florida to compete in two events, the 4X100 meter relay and the 4X400 meter relay. They placed third in the 4X100 meter relay and placed first in the 4X400 meter relay, earning the distinctions of All-American and National Champion. Asmond, Hightower, Ross, and Taylor now hold the South Carolina record in both events for their age group.
WINNSBORO – Efforts to potentially relocate Winnsboro’s
Confederate monument is unlikely until at least 2021, according to Fairfield
County officials.
Fairfield County Council discussed, but took no action on a request from the Town of Winnsboro to relocate the town’s Confederate monument from its current location at the Mt. Zion Institute grounds to the Fairfield County museum.
A confederate monument stands on the edge of the Mt. Zion Institute property. | Barbara Ball
County leaders cited the S.C. Heritage Act, which prohibits
governmental agencies from removing Confederate and other war memorials from
public property. A two-thirds vote in the state House and Senate is required to
override this requirement.
“I don’t think there’s any action that can be taken by this
council at this time,” said county attorney Tommy Morgan. “The town has brought
this to the council’s attention, but there’s nothing that can be done.”
The Winnsboro monument depicts a Confederate soldier and his
rifle atop an obelisk near the corner of Hudson and Zion streets in Winnsboro.
It was relocated from Congress Street to the school campus
in the 1960s after a street widening project in town, according to the S.C.
Picture Project, a non-profit that maintains an online database of historically
significant landmarks.
County Administrator Jason Taylor said it was the town that
initiated the request to the county to relocate the monument. That request was
made following a guest editorial published on June 25, in The Voice by
Fairfield County NAACP President Jennifer Jenkins calling for the removal of
the monument from the grounds of the former Mount Zion School.
During the July town council meeting, Winnsboro Mayor Roger
Gaddy said the town is merely exploring options.
“We’re not moving it [right now],” Gaddy said. “We’re just
exploring our different options and how to legally apply those options. We’re
not going to do anything illegal.”
Fairfield County Councilman Moses Bell asked if the county’s
legislative delegation would be able to request to move the monument.
Morgan said the delegation lacks that authority. He said the
town’s request is contingent upon any potential revisions to the Heritage Act.
Bills to that effect have been filed in the General
Assembly. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a limited number of items are
likely to be taken up this year, meaning it will likely be at least 2021 before
bills addressing the Heritage Act are taken up, Morgan said.
Bell said that he’s “very appreciative that the Town of
Winnsboro looked at this and saw the harm that it’s doing to the community by
the confederate monument being directly in front of where we’re going to have
the new administration building.”
Councilman Douglas Pauley thought moving the monument should
be the town’s responsibility, not the county’s.
“This monument has always been in the Town of Winnsboro’s
jurisdiction and they’re responsible for it. I don’t see the need for them to
want to give it to us and for us to accept the monument and put it on a piece
of county property,” Pauley said. “If the heritage act is approved, they can
find a more suitable location that they own instead of it being on a piece of
county property.”
Adopted in 2000, the Heritage Act protects most monuments.
In part it reads:
“No Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, War Between
the States, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War,
Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, Native American, or African-American History
monuments or memorials erected on public property of the State or any of its
political subdivisions may be relocated, removed, disturbed, or altered.”
WINNSBORO – The County and Town governments are looking to fund e-commerce sites for the county’s businesses as a way to help them survive the restrictions ordered during the Time of Corona.
In a presentation Monday night during the County Council
meeting, County Administrator Jason Taylor said the two governments are
considering providing funding for the Chamber to pay for the creation of
e-commerce websites for the county’s small businesses.
“We’ve kicked around several ideas,” Taylor said. “One idea
is a way to bring our businesses into the 21st century as far as how they
market themselves to the public. The concept is to help them with their web
presence – not just a website that says, ‘We’re here, located on Main Street,’
but one that has a point-of-sale feature so someone can go on it and not only
see what products are available, but be able to also purchase those products,
then go to the store and pick them up,” he said.
Taylor credited Sarah ‘N Geo’s pizza restaurant in Ridgeway
for taking the initiative to incorporate an e-commerce website into their
business.
“This restaurant was struggling after COVID hit. They went
online with a point-of-sale website and were booming after that,” Taylor said.
“That’s a model that worked for them, so we said, let’s see if we can follow
that.”
Taylor said e-commerce sites are a way to help the small
businesses long term, not just temporarily.
“I think we can assist businesses with this better than giving them a one-time grant. A one-time grant is a Band-Aid. With this [e-commerce site], I think they could come out of the pandemic even stronger,”
Taylor said.
Stephens agreed, saying that the pandemic had completely
shut some merchants down from doing business due to the government restrictions
put in place.
“Our restaurants were struggling, and the merchants were out
of business. They had no way to pull in any kind of income because they didn’t
have any kind of economic commerce capabilities at that time,” Stephens said.
To that end, Stephens would like to see Fairfield have a
virtual component that encompasses not only the businesses but tourism and
other things.
“When someone visits a town, one of the first things they do
is google the places they want to see and eat at. Most of our businesses and
restaurants don’t have websites. They just have Facebook. But if they don’t
have a website, they don’t have a Google rating,” Stephens said.
“We are partnering with Retail Systems, Inc., out of
Columbia, to connect with each of these businesses to create an internet
presence,” Stephens said. “The company will deal with each business
individually to customize their site to fit their needs. They will also offer
guidance on logistics, video monitoring services and credit card processing
services.”
Stephens said he’s contacting 30 businesses and restaurants
initially to offer them the opportunity to have an e-commerce site.
“This is a proposal to be able to basically bring our
businesses up to code,” Stephens said. “Once our businesses start doing this,
then we can start working on creating a virtual Fairfield.”
“The county is paying for the sites to be built and the
first three months of maintenance,” Stephens said. “Thereafter, the merchant or
restaurant will pick up the $50 monthly tab.”
For more information about the e-commerce sites, contact
Stephens at 803-635-4242.
BLYTHEWOOD – A Blythewood man charged with running a sex and drug trafficking operation has been sanctioned for contacting witnesses in the case from jail.
Watson
In court documents filed Sept. 4, U.S. District Judge J.
Michelle Childs signed an order barring Brian Leroy Watson from “having any
contact with potential victims or witnesses, direct or indirect, by phone,
email, online chats, social media websites, U.S. Mail, including through any
third parties.”
The order became necessary after prosecutors said in court
filings that Watson, also known as “B” or “Lil B,” contacted witnesses to
discuss the case. In one instance, a witness with whom he spoke discussed
retaliating against a victim in the case, court records show.
“While in custody on the [current] charges, Defendant is
contacting witnesses, having conversations about who he believes are the
victims with witnesses, and at least one of those witnesses has discussed
retaliating against a person that witness believes to be a victim,” prosecutors
said in a filing.
Ordinarily, the issue would be moot because attorneys noted the
suspect would be bound by a no contact order if out on bond.
Presently jailed at the Lexington County Detention Center,
Watson was allowed to contact people by phone, email, US mail or in person. One
of the persons Watson contacted was an unnamed woman in custody at another area
detention center, documents state.
“The intent of such contact is presumably to obstruct
justice, influence testimony, or punish who Witness 2 believes to be a victim
in the case,” the filing states. “The Court has a firm basis to impose
conditions, including while in detention, necessary to prevent and restrict
Defendant’s ability and opportunity to improperly influence witnesses or
obstruct justice.”
According to court records, the suspect contacted at least
two witnesses to discuss facts of the pending case. He also evaded jail
restrictions to set up a three-person call with two witnesses to discuss the
victims in the case, filings state.
Documents further state that a woman with whom the suspect
had a “close relationship” and is jailed at another facility vowed to retaliate
against a person she believes to be a victim.
The woman’s identity and exact nature of the discussions
were not disclosed in court documents, but prosecutors viewed the discussions
as more than enough reason to muzzle the suspect.
“Given Defendant’s history of force, fraud, coercion,
intimidation, physical violence, and sexual violence against both witnesses and
victims, given the fear witnesses and victims commonly report, and now
Defendant’s contact with Witness 1 and Witness 2 and Witness 2’s disturbing
statements about who Witness 2 believes to be a victim demonstrates the risk
and the need for the requested relief,” documents state.
Watson, 48, of Blythewood, has pleaded not guilty to 12
counts of various human and drug trafficking charges.
The 12-count indictment issued in August alleges human
trafficking violations occurred between 2016 and 2019 in South Carolina.
It also charges the suspect with distributing heroin and
fentanyl, and with unlawfully operating a Blythewood dwelling for the purpose
of storing and distributing heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, crack cocaine, and
methamphetamine, according to the indictment.
On August 27, prosecutors disclosed a laundry list of
computers, communications equipment, weapons and other items investigators
seized from the suspect.
Investigators seized 12 cell phones, five tablets, video
game systems, three rifles, BB guns, computers, watches, DVRs and a cache of
DVDs, documents state.
