5 people arrested so far in connection with Beaufort County human trafficking ring – The Island News – Beaufort, SC

Escaped Jasper County inmate linked to case

By Mike McCombs and Delayna Earley

Island news

So far, four men and one woman have been arrested in connection with a human trafficking operation in Beaufort County.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) arrested Alban Bryan, 63, of St. Helena Island; Guy Frank Talley III, 27, of Okatie; and William James Youmans, 34, of Beaufort. SLED confirmed the arrests in a press release on Thursday, June 13.

All three men were charged with human trafficking, victim under the age of 18, and all three remain incarcerated at the Beaufort County Detention Center. Their preliminary hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. Friday, June 28.

A fourth man, Terrance Lamar Fields, 50, of Beaufort, was arrested by Hardeeville Town Police on Tuesday, June 11, according to court documents, and was charged with human trafficking, victim under 18 . 1^st also offends him.

Fields was not listed in Thursday's SLED press release, but Hardeeville police confirmed his arrest was related to that same case.

And Hardeeville police announced Friday afternoon, via a Facebook post, that Sylvia Ilaife Meredith, 20, has been charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor in connection with the case.

According to SLED's press release, “the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, Beaufort Police Department, Jasper County Sheriff's Office, Hardeeville Police Department, 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office and the “U.S. Homeland Security Investigations are working together on the active and ongoing investigation.”

An escaped inmate linked to this case

These arrests come the same week as the escape of sex offender Jaquan Duvall Barnes from the Jasper County Detention Center, and a source confirmed to Island news that Barnes is connected to this case.

Barnes was being held at the detention center following his March 5 arrest after allegedly fleeing police during a traffic stop.

He was found with a missing minor girl from Beaufort County in the car with him.

The 28-year-old Port Royal resident was charged with human trafficking, victim under 18 — 1^st misdemeanor and was also charged with possession of marijuana which they found in his pocket.

Barnes, who previously pleaded guilty in Beaufort County to two counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and has pending charges in Fulton County, Ga., for pimping a minor and trafficking of a person for the purpose of sexual servitude, has been missing since the beginning. during the week according to an alert published Monday afternoon.

SLED quickly took over the investigation, but Barnes remains on the run.

What would have happened?

A source initially said Island news On Tuesday, June 11, law enforcement conducted searches of several residences in Beaufort County, including at least one in Mossy Oaks and one on Sainte-Hélène Island, and made several arrests as part of a human trafficking operation in Beaufort County.

Another source said the next day Island news that several men, from Beaufort County and perhaps other areas, used the promise of employment, even going so far as to place advertisements, to lure several underage women to one or more locations where they were drugged , drunk, held against their will and forced to have sex with paying customers.

During this period, at least some of the victims were detained on the island of Saint Helena.

It is unclear how law enforcement became aware of the trafficking operation.

The affadavits based on SLED's investigation were presented by Special Agent Logan B. Fey no later than the first week of June to Beaufort Magistrate Richard Brooks. It is unclear whether many arrest warrants were issued, but at least seven warrants signed by Brooks on Thursday, June 6 were executed.

The dates the trafficking occurred, according to the warrants, ranged from February 1, 2024 to March 5, 2024.

The three men arrested in Beaufort County, along with Fields, were all charged with human trafficking, victim under 18 years of age.

This charge states that the defendant “did the following: recruit, lure, solicit, isolate, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, or otherwise attempt a victim, knowing that the victim would be subjected to sex trafficking or for the purpose of this one. , forced labor or services, for the purpose of committing commercial sexual acts for remuneration. That the defendant knew the victim was under eighteen and continued to subject her to a sex trafficking scheme in which he participated.

The arrest warrants for Bryan, Talley and Youmans also allege that the defendants organized these acts from their residences. Island news has not seen the arrest warrant for Fields.

Bryan and Youmans were also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. This charge states that “the defendant knew that the victim was under the age of eighteen and knew that she was a missing person from her place of residence. The defendant effectively provided housing and narcotics to the minor victim while encouraging the sex trafficking of the minor victim.

Talley faces two additional charges: sexual exploitation of a minor, 2^sd Degree; and sexual exploitation of a minor, 3^sd Degree.

The second-degree charge accuses Talley of “distributing, transporting, distributing, receiving, selling, purchasing, trading or soliciting material containing a virtual depiction of a minor engaged in sexual activity or appearing in a state of sexually nudity explicit… That the Defendant, through the use of his personal cellular device, distributed the image referenced above.

The third-degree charge accuses him of knowingly and willfully possessing “material containing a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexual activity or appearing in a state of sexually explicit nudity… That the defendant, through the use from his personal cellular device, received and possessed the image referenced above.

Once again, these charges allege that Talley organized, obtained or accessed these images at his residence.

Samuel Cyrus Blackmon, 37, of St. Helena Island, was also charged with simple possession of marijuana, as was Bryan. Blackmon was arrested by the Beaufort County Sheriff's Department.

Youmans (12:58 p.m.), Bryan (1:36 p.m.) and Talley (6:06 p.m.) were booked into the Beaufort County Detention Center on Tuesday, June 11, according to detention center records, but they did not presented. on the site until Wednesday.

And according to a Jasper County Detention Center employee, Fields is incarcerated there, although he does not currently appear in the Jasper County Detention Center's inmate logs on its website.

Meredith's status is unclear. She does not appear in inmate records at the Jasper County Detention Center, and Hardeeville town police have yet to respond to phone calls from Island news.

The victims

Little is publicly known about the victims in this case, except that there are at least several. Sources confirmed Island news there are multiple victims but I can't confirm if that means several or dozens.

From the same source, Island news also learned that at least one of the victims is Hispanic and at least one is as young as 14 years old.

It is unclear whether a certain type of victim was targeted, under what conditions were the victims detained, were they detained together or separately, and what condition were they currently in?

Although SLED confirmed the investigation and initial arrests, efforts to contact them by telephone were unsuccessful and no responses were received to emails with specific questions.

The Hardeeville City Police Department shared new details in a Facebook post, but phone calls have so far gone unanswered.

The silence among participating law enforcement agencies could indicate that more arrests are likely.

Once the investigation is complete, the case will be prosecuted by the Special Victims Prosecution Unit of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

This story will be updated.

Mike McCombs is the editor-in-chief of The Island News and can be reached at [email protected].

Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, previously worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at [email protected].