A South Carolina man faces decades in prison after pleading guilty to destruction of an energy facility and possession of child sexual abuse material, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Donald Ray Hurst Jr., a 35-year-old Sumter resident, faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000, restitution, and a lifetime of supervision to follow the term of imprisonment for each charge, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.
On Aug. 11, 2023, Duke Energy called law enforcement to respond to a power outage near Fish Road in Dalzell, according to the release.
FBI agents and deputies with the Sumter County Sheriff's Office arrived and saw that the regulator bank, which helps distribute power to the local community and businesses, had multiple holes in it that appeared to be from bullets, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The damage resulted in a power outage to several thousand customers and the cost of the clean-up and replacement of the regulators was more than $100,000, according to the release.
Witnesses told investigators they heard gunshots near the regulators on Aug. 9, prompting agents to install a pole camera, the U.S. Attorney's office said. Two days later, they returned and found that the regulators had been shot again, and they recovered a 9mm shell casing at the scene, according to the release.
A review of the camera footage revealed that a white van arrived near the regulators and gunshots were seen being fired toward the energy facility, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. With the help of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, FBI agents located the owner of the van and interviewed the owner who said that Hurst and another individual possessed the van during the time of the shooting, according to the release.
Agents searched the van and found a spent 9mm shell casing, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The agents searched Hurst's home where they recovered a firearm in his room and a 9mm handgun in a safe in another room of the house, according to the release.
Forensic analysis determined that the shell casing found at the scene of the shooting and the shell casing recovered from the van were fired from the 9mm handgun, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Hurst's fingerprint was also found on the trigger of the 9mm handgun, and the key to the safe containing the firearm was located with Hurst's car keys, according to the release.
While he was locked up, Hurst was heard on a recorded jail phone call telling someone about a hard drive in his room that needed to be recovered because it "could get someone in trouble," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
In a another recorded phone call, Hurst admitted to shooting the regulator bank and said that the hard drive at his home contained images of child pornography that he got from the dark web, according to the release.
Agents retrieved the hard drive from the home, and found several images that were confirmed to be child sexual abuse material by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis accepted the guilty plea and will sentence Hurst after receiving and reviewing a sentencing report prepared by the U.S. Probation Office, according to the release.
This case was investigated by the FBI Columbia Field Office, SLED, the Sumter County Sheriff's Office and the Sumter Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lamar Fyall and Michael Shedd are prosecuting the case, according to the release. Katarzyna Timmons, an attorney with the Sumter County Public Defender's Office, was listed as Hurst's lawyer, court records show.