Crime & Courts

South Carolina Detainees Drop Gang Signs, Smoke Joints On Snapchat

Pee Dee facility where they are incarcerated has a long history of contraband issues involving detention center officers…

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Contraband cell phones and illicit drug use are pervasive South Carolina’s jails and prisons. Our media outlet has been provided with stellar examples of both of these issues occurring in the Darlington County detention center.

A pair of alleged murderers – Quinton McLeroy Jr. and Jameare Lorenzo Jr. – are both also purportedly avid Snapchat users while awaiting trial.

McLeroy Jr. was arrested in connection with an October 2023 shooting at the Darlington-Lee Adult Education School that resulted in the death of 16-year–old student Si’dreek Maurice Player.

Dorchester SC mugshot
McLeroy’s Mugshot (Via: DCSO)

According to Player’s obituary, he was a week away from earning his GED when he was killed. Darlington County sheriff James Hudson told media he believed Player was connected to another shooting that had disrupted traffic earlier in that month.

The alleged shooter was denied bond, and has resided at the detention center ever since. Sources in Darlington County provided FITSNews with screenshots of social media posts purporting to have been posted to McLeroy’s Snapchat account where he can be seen throwing what appear to be Blood gang signs.

The Shapchat post, which disappeared after being visible for a limited period of time, featured the song “Kman Not Living” by “DEE GLOKK.”

Glockk raps about “smoking (murdering) you and your hoe” in what he terms a “two for one special.”

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Dorchester SC detainee
(Provided)

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Curiously, McLeroy’s handcuffs appear to have been opened in the post – and clearly someone other than McLeroy snapped the photos on his behalf.

While McLeroy’s Snapchats aren’t inherently dangerous, Palmetto prison officials have repeatedly have argued that the presence of contraband cell phones in jails result in violence.

shannon-1.jpeg
Daniel Allen Shannon

FITSNews previously reported on the the case of Daniel Allen Shannon, who has tried to escape SCDC custody on multiple occasions. According to federal prosecutors, Shannon used “contraband cellphones to coordinate the distribution of large quantities of methamphetamine throughout Lancaster and Kershaw counties.”

Not only that, he called in a hit from behind bars …

“After coming to believe that one of his drug couriers had been robbed, Shannon sent his associates to retaliate, and a Kershaw man was shot and killed in September of 2019,” a news release from the office of U.S. attorney Adair Ford Boroughs noted. 

S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson has called on the federal government to authorize cell phone jamming in prisons – stating that violent criminals are “using contraband cell phones to facilitate drug trafficking, commit extortion and even organize murders.”

A Snapchat video of accused murderer Jameare Lorenzo Nero Jr. provided to this news outlet demonstrates that Darlington detention center detainees have access not only to cell phones, but to drugs.

Lorenzo appears to be smoking a joint (marijuana) as he awaits trial for allegedly firing multiple rounds into a moving vehicle on Valentine’s Day. The bullets allegedly struck and killed 18-year-old Roxianne Smith.

(Click to view)

(Provided)

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FITSNews reached out to sheriff Hudson regarding the allegations of illicit phones – and illegal drugs – in his detention center. His chief deputy, David Young, responded – telling this news outlet “as with any detention center or prison it is a constant battle with contraband entering into the facility.”

“Unfortunately, there is (often) a detention officer involved,” Young said.

In 2022, WPDE TV-15 ( ABC – Florence/Myrtle Beach) noted that “seven Darlington County correctional officers” had been arrested over the previous eighteen months.

At the time, Hudson told the station “we are making sure the officers are getting the proper training to work at the jail.”

Contraband is clearly still entering the facilities, however. Earlier this year, former detention center officer Kilenna Michelle Wright was charged with bringing marijuana, tobacco and rolling papers into the facility, where she was subsequently booked.

Chief deputy Young told us the detention center “installed additional cameras, fenced in the employee parking lot, and stopped allowing employees to return to their vehicles without an escort.” He added that officials “recently intercepted a package before it could get inside of the facility.”

Hudson’s electoral opponent, Michael August, has targeted the incumbent’s inability to police his own employees inc campaign advertisements, claiming “if sheriff Hudson can’t enforce the rule of law in his office, he can’t enforce it on our streets.”

August lost to Hudson in 2020, drawing 45.22 percent of the vote to Hudson’s 49.34 percent.

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Michael August’s campaign mailing targets the arrests of sheriff Hudson’s employees. (Facebook)

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FITSNews reported on legislative efforts to raise penalties for the use of contraband phones by prisoners, anyone found guilty of the new statute is “guilty of a felony” and subject to fines ranging from at least $1,000 to $10,000 – and additional prison time ranging from at least one year up to a full decade.

Perhaps it’s time legislators raise penalties for state and county officials supplying the phones, too…

It seems those awaiting trial for murder don’t care much if their eventual sentences are extended – but the criminals operating in the law enforcement community might be more effectively dissuaded from attempting to facilitate access to cell phones in prisons and jails if they, too, faced mandatory severe punishment for phone smuggling.

Count on FITSNews to continue to report on all of these issues as we strive to hold the South Carolina criminal justice system accountable to the public…

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

(Via: Travis Bell)

Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.

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3 comments

River Top fan October 11, 2024 at 7:33 am

Some sleazy esquire is ready to defend him bc he “dint do nuffin”. Kamala’s people.

Reply
Nothing New October 11, 2024 at 9:09 am

Geeze, how shameful. Prisoners can’t even post wholesome content and cat memes with their contraband phones anymore!

Reply
Nanker Phelge October 11, 2024 at 4:49 pm

And get this, a convicted felon, adjuticated rapist and dementia patient is running for president! He also uses his phone to have private conversations with murderous dictator Vladimir Putin, patron saint of this blahg.

Reply

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