Using social media to demand the executions of public officials lands SC man in prison

A South Carolina man who used social media to issue threats and call for public officials to be executed is going to prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

Casey William Degolyer, a 48-year-old Fairfield County resident, pleaded guilty to threatening interstate communications, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Degolyer was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, according to the release. There is no parole in the federal system.

Evidence presented in court showed that the FBI received numerous complaints regarding Degolyer’s posts on social media, according to the release.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Degolyer posted almost daily calling for the execution of public officials, including the need to hang certain public office holders from a rope. He also advocated for the killing of law enforcement officers and their families, dragging judges and their families “out of their households” to be “brutalized in the streets,” in addition to opposing the government by violence and force, as well as killing members of certain racial and ethnic groups, according to the release. Specifics about which groups he named was not available.

Degolyer targeted both specific public office holders and groups of people based on their jobs or ethnicity, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. He wrote that he was “about to go dark and take action,” according to the release.

The threats continued even after Degolyer was contacted by law enforcement officers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Degolyer has prior convictions for criminal domestic violence, violating an order of protection, violating a restraining order, and unlawful use of a telephone, according to the release. When he was arrested, he was found with four guns and ammunition, which he was not allowed to possess under federal law, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie issued a prison sentence for Degolyer that was above the advisory sentencing guidelines, and it will be followed by three-year term of court-ordered supervision, according to the release.

This case was investigated by the FBI Columbia Field Office with support from the U.S. Secret Service, the York County Sheriff’s Office, the Rock Hill Police Department, and the Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elliott B. Daniels prosecuted the case. Information about Degolyer’s lawyer was not available.