Man sentenced for looting in Pawleys Island neighborhood during Hurricane Florence
A Pawleys Island man pleaded guilty to burglarizing and looting six homes in the Pawleys Plantation community during the mandatory evacuation ordered by the governor during Hurricane Florence in 2018.
The plea was announced today in a nes release from the 15th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Coleman Jack Tudor, 35, of Pawleys Island, pleaded guilty to looting under a state of emergency, four counts of second-degree burglary non-violent, and two counts of first-degree burglary, said Alicia Richardson, the deputy solicitor who prosecuted the case for the 15th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
Tudor pleaded guilty on the day his jury trial was scheduled to begin. His trial had been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Circuit Court Judge Frank R. Addy, Jr. sentenced Tudor to 20 years in prison on the two first-degree burglary charges. Because the burglary charges are a violent, most serious crime, Tudor must serve at least 85 percent of his 20-year sentence before he is eligible for supervised release.
He also was sentenced to 10 years in prison on the remaining charges, which was the maximum punishment for those offenses. All the sentences will run concurrently.
The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office solved this case and arrested Tudor within a week of discovering the burglaries. Investigators found DNA evidence in one of the homes that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division linked to Tudor.
They also recovered some of the stolen property in a storage unit rented by Tudor.
Henry Carrsion was the lead investigator in the case along with Robbie Sarvis, Criminal Investigations Supervisor with the sheriff’s office. Many other deputies with the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the investigation.
“The Sheriff’s office, under the leadership of Sheriff Carter Weaver, did an excellent job in quickly solving this case all while still responding to the State of Emergency caused by Hurricane Florence. SLED also treated this case with the utmost priority,” Richardson said. “Looting during a mandatory evacuation will not be tolerated in Georgetown County. Our citizens should not have to worry about someone stealing from them while they are trying to protect their lives from a hurricane.”
