Sitting down with 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson

[00:00:05]Hi, and welcome back. I hope you've had a great weekend. Um, last week for us was really busy.

[00:00:12]Uh, we only had pleas. We didn't have trials, but the whole month of June we've we we are in court, so um, I'm sure a lot of those pleas from last week were pleas that were people that were on the trial roster for the next week in June.

[00:00:30]Uh, and we had a couple of felony DUIs that pled guilty uh, before going to trial. First one was Michael Wagner, 38 of Myrtle Beach. Um, he pled guilty to DUI driving under the influence with death resulting.

[00:00:47]And he got a 10-year prison term. Now, um, on felony DUIs, that sentence range for judges is anywhere from 1 year minimum to maximum of 25 years. Uh, saw a lot of comments about it's murder.

[00:01:08]Um, it's and I understand the sentiment very much, but it is um, felony DUI is just like any DUI that you would have um, drinking over the legal amount, but in the course of that somebody dies there's a result and that's felony DUI with death. So, uh, 10 years. Now, this one I remember um, very well. Um, Michael Wagner was um, he had a.2 blood alcohol conc- concentrate and you can get that either by blowing into um, a breathalyzer or they draw blood. Most of the time when it's felony DUI, they draw blood. Um, and in this case, Mike Nicholson, 84 years old, clipped him and killed him there. Then Wagner went, um, you know, was just drunk as, um, he could be and went over and parked parked and, um, he was arrested, um, not far from the incident location.

[00:02:17]Um, but, uh, that was a straight-up plea because it was on the trial roster and, um, he got 10 years. The other charge was, uh, another felony DUI and, um, this is Kayla Tisdale, 38 of Little River.

[00:02:35]Um, she pled guilty to felony DUI. It's the same sentence. It goes from 1 year to 25 years. But in this case, uh, we negotiated the sentence and said the only way we're going to allow any sort of plea is if the judge has to give you 14 years.

[00:02:54]Um, and, uh, she pled to that and received, um, a 14-year sentence.

[00:03:02]Now, she's part of that also and, again, every case is a little bit different.

[00:03:09]Um, but in this case, um, she also faces charges for, um, in federal court, which they have not acted on yet, but it was sort of a a scheme, um, where she was funneling money for drugs. So, she could get an additional 3 years on that case, which would have to be uh, consecutive to these charges.

[00:03:41]So, it would be, you know, up to 17 years.

[00:03:44]Um, again, um, a lot of concepts at play here. The state is different from the federal government. It always has been. It's that concept has been upheld numerous times by the United States Supreme Court. And um your state people are different than federal prosecutors.

[00:04:07]And it's not double jeopardy. So, uh even though these charges are different, uh clearly it would appear that she is um up to no good on on several different aspects. Stephen Marshall, 62, um had 20 years in law enforcement and moved here from Pennsylvania um and was killed almost instantly in in the crash.

[00:04:34]Um she had been drinking basically all day.

[00:04:38]April Tisdale had.

[00:04:41]And um it ended up, you know, costing um Stephen Marshall's life.

[00:04:49]Um but she's going to have to pull 14 years here and then additional time in federal court. The only difference in these two sentences is we wanted to make sure, for whatever reason, that it was more than 10. So, we negotiated um 14 years there.

[00:05:11]Uh so, those are the two felony DUIs from last week.

[00:05:15]Uh the uh there was an armed robbery and a drug case that was up for trial again this coming week. This young man, well, he's 30 years old, not particularly young, but Tayjohn Johnson, 30 years old of Conway, he pled guilty to um armed robbery.

[00:05:36]Uh and that was that armed robbery was on October the 25th of 2025. So, um pretty you know, you hear about all of this backlog, but that was the case already ready and up for trial for an armed robbery and ended up pleading but um well within a year, about 6 months. Um that was the armed robbery.

[00:06:01]Uh it looks like Johnson and a co-defendant led one of the victims into a home and then um by trick and then pulled out a gun and robbed them of cash and jewelry. Um the charges against Johnson's co-defendants are still pending. He got 12 years on that. Mandatory minimum on armed robbery is 10 and it goes up to 30.

[00:06:28]Um he also had a drug charge that was just from 1 month later, in November, where um Horry County police um had a traffic stop and found um a lot of drugs, 22.1 g of fentanyl, in the car and he got 12 years on that, also. So, he will be um he'll be serving for the armed robbery and the drug drug charges, two separate events.

[00:07:02]Um Finally, last week we had um actually, week before that, we had a a young man, Tavon Haskins, 24, Myrtle Beach.

[00:07:16]He pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute uh cocaine and possession with intent to distribute meth and he got 10 years for those. Those were both first offenses. Um he could have went up to 15 years, but he got 10 years. Real good case by um narcotics team and being able to bust uh, this case and bring it in.

[00:07:42]You know, I think everybody at this point should realize um out of all of these cases so many of them could have easily been avoided. You know, the felony DUIs you know, I I think more particular now with jurors they see that you could get Uber, you could get Lyft, you could get a drunk um designated driver um, you could get a cab, do it the old-fashioned way. There's so many ways that you don't have to get behind the wheel of a um um, a weapon at that point and um, hurt somebody and and pull significant time for it.

[00:08:29]The um, the drug cases, you know, I understand the allure of making a little quick money um, but is it worth 10, 12 years of your life? If you're 38, it's going to put you to 50 getting out.

[00:08:46]Um, at some point I think people are going to realize not jurors, but drug sellers that there are better places in the state to go and sell drugs than Horry or Georgetown County. Um, it's not going to cost you decades of your life.

[00:09:01]Here it will.

[00:09:02]And the uh, armed robbery is just inexcusable.

[00:09:06]Um, you know, to go and pull a gun on somebody um, and just get a few trinkets or jewelry uh, and then go pull a 10 or 12 years for that.

[00:09:18]But anyway, uh, we will be in court this week. A lot will be going on again and uh, I'll be here to update you next Monday.