SC man gets 30 years for guns, drugs. He still faces NC murder charge for buried body

A South Carolina man will serve 30 years in prison for drugs and gun crimes after a conviction in York County, but he’s likely not done with court.

That’s because Jacob Dewayne Hall, 30, also is charged with murder in North Carolina after police recovered a buried body of a missing man in South Carolina near Lake Wylie where Hall used to live close to Charlotte.

York County Judge Dan Hall sentenced Jacob Hall to 30 years in prison late Thursday after a jury found Jacob Hall guilty of trafficking methamphetamine and possession of a weapon by a person convicted of a violent offense, according to court records and trial prosecutor Leslie Robinson. Hall had been on trial since Monday in York County criminal court at the Moss Justice Center.

Judge Hall sentenced Jacob Hall to 25 years for the drugs and an additional five for the weapons charge. The 25 year sentence for the weight of drugs over 100 grams is mandatory under South Carolina law, prosecutors said.

In 2022, York County sheriff deputies and drug agents seized about 5.9 ounces of meth along with several guns and ammunition from a home near the North Carolina state line that belonged to Hall’s mother, Robinson said. Police had been called to the house to do a well-being check when the drugs and guns were found in a bedroom, Robinson said. Hall was not at the home at the time, she said.

Hall was wanted by officials for missing court on an earlier charge, Robinson said.

He wasn’t arrested for the drugs and guns until police found him two months later more than 700 miles away in Upstate New York. Hall was caught in April 2022 near Syracuse, N.Y., then extradited back to South Carolina. He has been in jail since.

At trial, prosecutors showed online Facebook messages from Hall to people that showed knowledge of the drugs and guns that police seized from a safe in the house, Robinson said.

Body found in SC

In May, police found the buried body of Phillip Cullen Burr of Ellenboro, N.C. on the York County property while Jacob Hall was in jail.

Burr had been missing since 2021, the Rutherford County N.C sheriff and York County Coroner said in August when Jacob Hall was indicted for murder.

Jacob Hall has previous York County convictions in South Carolina for attempted armed robbery and assault and battery from 2017, said prosecutors Robinson and Chris Epting.

Robinson said law enforcement in South Carolina and North Carolina worked together on the investigation.

‘Violent drug dealer’

16th Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett, York County’s top prosecutor, said the York County case with its guilty verdict and 30-year sentence clearly demonstrates the intersection of drugs and guns in crime.

“Jacob Hall is the poster child for the violent drug dealer and our community is a safer place today thanks to the efforts of law enforcement and Senior Solicitor Leslie Robinson,” Brackett said.

Hall receives 682 days jail credit toward the 30-year sentence, records show. He is not eligible for parole on the 25-year drug sentence, prosecutors said.

It remains unclear when Hall will go to court on the murder indictment in North Carolina, officials said.