4 Lowcountry Men Arrested for Child Trafficking Within 2 Days; SLED conducts investigation

Four Beaufort County men were arrested this week on child trafficking charges, a very rare charge in Lowcountry courts. Authorities say the four cases are related, but little else was known Wednesday about the circumstances of the alleged crimes.

In Beaufort County, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division filed sex trafficking charges Tuesday against Alban Bryan, 63, of St. Helena Island; Guy Frank Talley, 27, of Okatie; and William James Youmans, 34, of Beaufort. Bryan and Youmans were also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, while Talley was charged with second- and third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, crimes encompassing the creation, distribution and ownership of child pornography material.

In Jasper County, Hardeeville police charged Beaufort resident Terrance Fields, 49, with trafficking of a minor on Monday. Police Chief Sam Woodward confirmed the case was linked to the three other arrests, but referred questions to SLED, whose staff could not be reached Wednesday for further details.

State law defines trafficking as any attempt to forcibly subject a victim to prostitution or involuntary servitude, not necessarily sexual in nature. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years if the victim is a minor.

This week's string of arrests comes three months after Port Royal resident Jaquan Duvall Barnes, a previously convicted sex offender, was jailed on the same trafficking charge after Hardeeville police allegedly arrested him for find a minor girl missing in her car. Court officials believed he was the first person in the area to face a high trafficking offense, created in 2018 when a rewrite of state law added harsher penalties for cases involving victims minor.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Barnes remained on the run following his escape from the Jasper County Detention Center earlier this week. SLED quickly took over the manhunt and conducted an investigation into how the inmate managed to escape.