SC AG's office to prosecute former Upstate SC youth pastor, now facing over 90 sex charges
At least 80 victims have been identified by law enforcement in the case of a former Landrum church youth pastor, who now faces a total of 91 criminal sexual charges in two counties and will be prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney General's office.
According to warrants signed Monday by a Greenville County magistrate judge, Daniel Kellan Mayfield, 35, faces 20 new charges. Thirteen charges are for voyeurism and seven are for sexual exploitation of a minor. Mayfield faces 60 previous charges in Greenville County and 11 in Greenwood County.
Multiple rounds of charges have been filed against Mayfield since he was first arrested by Greenwood County Sheriff's deputies on May 26, following an incident where he was caught filming a woman showering at a home in Ninety-Six, SC.
Many of the warrants allege Mayfield filmed the victims in changing rooms or closed bathrooms while in his official capacity as a youth pastor. Others allege he secretly filmed victims at weddings where he was either providing videography services or acting as an official keyholder and representative of Gowensville First Baptist Church, where he was employed.
Warrants say Mayfield confessed to Greenwood deputies to owning the recordings of the victims on his devices for explicit sexual purposes. He also allegedly admitted to filming the woman during the May 26 incident.
SC Attorney General's office prosecutor Bethany Miles, who is representing the state in the case, confirmed Tuesday afternoon the office is handling the charges against Mayfield.
The SC AG's office handles multi-jurisdictional cases and those involving Internet Crimes Against Children but has not specified the grounds in which their office took over the case.
Greenville County Sheriff's Office: Gradual charges against Mayfield due to 'abundance of information'
When Mayfield was first charged in Greenville County on June 1, Lt. Ryan Flood said the Sheriff's Office had identified six victims but were working to identify other potential victims. However, in a Tuesday afternoon email, Flood provided an updated victim count.
"Thus far, there are 80 identified and interviewed victims that want to prosecute. There are additional victims, less than a half dozen, that have opted to not prosecute," Flood said.
Over half the warrants state the victims were minors.
Flood added, the gradual addition of charges has been due to processing evidence, which he called “an abundance of files and information.”
Tuesday's is the fifth wave of multiple charges against Mayfield in Greenville County. Previous sets of warrants were signed by Greenville County magistrate judges on June 1, June 5, June 23 and July 7. The initial warrant for Mayfield's arrest in Greenwood County was signed on May 27 and was followed by ten additional charges in early June.
First Baptist Church Gowensville Senior Pastor Josh Phillips previously said the church would not make Mayfield's personnel file public after a request by The News.
Phillips said the charges have been "deeply painful and personal" for those impacted by Mayfield's actions.
"This was a complete and total shock to everyone who knew him, from parents to volunteers to students to family and close friends," Phillips said on July 11. "Unfortunately these things usually are surprises. It is the people you do not expect."
Phillips said Mayfield was employed at the church from the summer of 2016 until he was fired on May 27. Mayfield was the student minister and oversaw "anything related to technology, including website and app duties," Phillips said.
Miles said Mayfield does not have a set court date yet.
Chalmers Rogland covers public safety for the Herald-Journal. Reach him via email at crogland@shj.com.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC AG's office to prosecute former Upstate pastor, now facing 91 charges
