Midlands man stole police vehicle from training facility, Richland County sheriff says
A Midlands man with a record of resisting arrest, property damage and robbery has been charged with stealing a retired Richland County Sheriff’s Department vehicle from a training facility, according to the department..
De’Anthony Jones was in possession of the marked sheriff’s department vehicle for four days before he was arrested in Lexington County Tuesday following a tip, according to a statement from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. During this time, Jones allegedly attempted to fill up the cruiser using a gas card he found in the vehicle and was caught on CCTV wandering a store while wearing a sheriff’s department ballistic vest, which displayed the department’s emblem.
On Saturday, Jones allegedly entered a sheriff’s department training facility by ramming the gate with another vehicle. Once inside the facility, where sheriff’s deputies undergo fitness tests and practice with firearms, Jones allegedly stole the black 2015 Ford Expedition, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at a press conference Tuesday.
“Due to the laziness and stupidity of my people who left the keys in it (the vehicle). That’s our fault that the vehicle got stolen,” Lott said.
But Lott questioned why Jones was free in the first place, pointing to a long record of arrests with little jail time.
“His record is atrocious,” said Lott, who has actively campaigned against what he has called a system of “catch and release” in South Carolina.
In 2017, Jones was sentenced to three years probation with a six year suspended sentence as a youthful offender after he pleaded guilty to a strong arm robbery in Lexington County.
In September that same year, he received a sentence of time served after pleading guilty to five counts of larceny for breaking into “motor vehicle or tanks, pumps, where fuel, lubricants stored,” according to court records.
Jones was sentenced to 48 days time served after pleading guilty to resisting arrest in October 2022, in Lexington County.
In 2020, Jones was charged with ten counts stemming from his participation in what Lott described as “riots” during the George Floyd protests. Among other charges, court records indicate that Jones was charged with multiple counts of looting and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
In March 2023, he pleaded guilty to one count of malicious property damage or trespass and one count of larceny valued at less than $2,000. In both cases he received a sentence of sixteen days with time served, according to court records.
The remaining charges were dismissed, according to court records.
Jones, according to to Lott, was “someone who had had nothing but a life of crime but we keep slapping him on the wrist.”
Following his arrest, Jones was incarcerated at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. He is charged with two counts of grand larceny, with a value of more than $10,000, two counts of third degree burglary, two counts of malicious injury to property valued between $2,000 and $10,000 and one count of credit card theft for using the gas card, according to court records.
As has become his practice in cases that Lott has said demonstrate too much leniency in the justice system, the sheriff has pledged to be at Jones’ upcoming hearings. “I’m going to let these charges get dismissed with me standing there,” Lott said.
