COLUMBIA, SC Accused kidnapper Freddie Grant’s next appearance in federal court will be Dec. 19 on his ammunition charge.

John Delgado, Grant’s attorney, said he planned to file a motion within the next month that would ask a judge to bar prosecutors from using evidence gathered by Richland County authorities during an August search of Grant’s home. Delgado indicated that Grant might plead guilty to the charges if U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie denies his motion.

Grant was charged in August with being a felon in possession of ammunition and faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence. Richland County Sheriff’s investigators found bullets and shotgun shells in his Elgin home after they used a search warrant to go inside. They were searching Grant’s home because he was a suspect in the case of missing Richland County 15-year-old Gabrielle Swainson.

The Richland County Sheriff’s Department has a warrant for Grant’s arrest on a kidnapping charge, but it has not yet been served. Grant is being held on the federal charges at the Lexington County Detention Center. A detainer has been placed on him so that we would be transported to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center should he be released from federal custody.

During a pretrial conference Tuesday, Currie denied Delgado’s request to share information he gathered in the federal case with the public defender who is representing Grant on the kidnapping charge.

If Grant’s ammunition charge goes to trial, it would be held sometime in January. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacey Haynes told Currie she expected the trial to last about two days.

Elvia Swainson, the mother of the missing teen, attended the hearing. She declined comment afterward, as did attorneys for both sides.

Reach Phillips at (803) 771-8307.