DUNGEON KEEPER GETS 25 YEARS FOR FEDERAL FIREARM CHARGE

          COLUMBIA, South Carolina -- United States Attorney W. Walter Wilkins announced today that United States District Judge Terry L. Wooten sentenced Kenneth Glenn Hinson, 49, of Hartsville, South Carolina, to 25 years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

          In March 2006, state arrest warrants had been issued for Hinson’s alleged rape and kidnapping of two 17 year-old girls who told authorities they had been held in a dungeon Hinson had built.

          Hinson was located after a three-day manhunt when his niece notified authorities that he was in her backyard. Deputies responded to the scene and found Hinson behind the residence attempting to get water. Officer arrested Hinson and seized a loaded Hi-Point 9mm from his waistband.

          Hinson was later acquitted by a state jury of the sexual assault and kidnapping charges. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Carolina thereafter sought a federal indictment for Hinson’s possession of the firearm at the time of his arrest, and he was convicted on that charge last November by a federal jury that deliberated six minutes before returning a guilty verdict.

          At today’s sentencing hearing, Judge Wooten ruled that Hinson was an Armed Career Criminal, a designation that increased his sentence under federal sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors presented evidence that Hinson was convicted in October 1991for raping a 12 year-old girl. In addition, Hinson had been convicted in 1989 for trafficking in cocaine and in 1983 for aggravated assault and battery.

          The case was investigated by the Darlington County Sheriff’s Office, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the United States Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rose Mary Parham.

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