Solicitor requests grand jury

Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone has asked for a state grand jury investigation into the shootings that have plagued Colleton County since early November.

"Shootings have continued even with an increased presence of state and local law enforcement," Stone said in his request to state Attorney General Henry McMaster.

After a Nov. 9 drive-by shooting on Gerideau Street in Walterboro in which three people were killed, including a 20-month old child, the town of Walterboro has been flooded with law enforcement officers.

Investigators from the State Law Enforcement Division, the Colleton County Sheriff's Office and Walterboro Police Department are investigating the shooting and subsequent shootings that might be related, but so far only one person has been charged in the Gerideau Street drive-by.

Stone said "many others are involved" in that shooting, according to his letter this week to McMaster.

A state grand jury, Stone said Thursday, will have the power to compel testimony and to throw people in jail if they refuse to talk to investigators.

In the anti-gang legislation enacted in 2007, the state Legislature expanded the scope of the state grand jury to include gang investigations, Stone said.

County grand juries have only limited investigative capabilities, he said. And they are hampered by county lines. The state grand jury is impaneled in Columbia and has statewide jurisdiction. It can issue contempt citations. Witnesses can face perjury charges if they lie, Stone said.

Stone's request has been received by McMaster and is under consideration, said Mark Plowden, spokesman for McMaster. The attorney general is responsible for impaneling a state grand jury.

"We typically don't comment on the actions of the state grand jury, but the Gang Prevention Act allows for the state grand jury to be used for gang investigations," Plowden said.

Plowden said it was too soon to say if Stone's request will be granted. "There are some steps that must be taken according to law, but his request gets the process started."

Stone said he has discussed the idea with other law enforcement authorities in Colleton County and that all of them agree with the plan. He also said he has discussed it with McMaster.

"Which of the shootings we've had in the past two or three weeks are related, and which are not, we'll find out," Stone said.

A study on gang activity and membership released Dec. 9 by the state Department of Public Safety reported that Colleton County, with just 38,000 people, had the highest gang violence rate in the state, with 98 incidents reported in 2007.

Once the state grand jury is involved, Stone said, investigators and assistant solicitors from his Career Criminal Prosecution Team will be assigned to work with the attorney general's investigators as well as SLED to investigating the shootings.

If the state grand jury finds a case is gang-related and returns an indictment, the case would be tried in the county where the crime took place, Stone said.

Reach David W. MacDougall at 937-5655.