Hawk-killing University of South Carolina trustee fined $30,000

University of South Carolina trustee Charles Williams was sentenced in federal court Monday to pay a $30,000 fine for killing federally protected red-tailed hawks.

The sentence, by U.S. Judge Michelle Childs, was lighter than a sentence passed down in June 2016 by federal magistrate Judge Shiva Hodges, who gave Williams a $75,000 fine and 50 hours of community service at a bird wildlife center. Hodges also banned him from hunting for one year.

On Monday, Childs did not reinstate the hunting ban and she dropped the requirement for community service because, she said, Williams is an outstanding citizen who does many good works in his community.

“I had no idea this was a federal offense,” Williams, 67, an Orangeburg attorney, told the judge before sentencing. He nonetheless said he accepts responsibility for the killings. The crime is a misdemeanor.

Although federal prosecutors at that 2016 hearing asked for a $100,000 fine and a three-year hunting ban, Hodges’ $75,000 sentence was one of the largest federal fines ever levied against an individual for killing wildlife, according to a list of fines read in a previous Williams’ hawk-killing hearing.

During Monday’s two-plus-hour hearing at Columbia’s federal courthouse, Williams pleaded guilty to trapping and killing seven hawks in violation of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which protects some 800 birds. He and three employees were said to have killed some 30 hawks and other birds, but prosecutors only charged him with seven counts, from late 2013 to early 2014.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Klumb told the judge that investigators had evidence Williams had killed far more than just 30 hawks.

“The ‘hawk eradication program’ directed by this defendant lasted at least two years,” said Klumb, who had asked the judge for a $100,000 fine because “it has to hurt the defendant.” A pre-sentence report showed Williams could easily pay a $100,000 fine, Klumb said.

In addition to trapping and killing the birds in “inhumane” ways, Williams often left them in cages for days before coming to kill them, Klumb said.

The motive for the hawk killings was undisputed: Williams and his workers killed the hawks because they preyed upon coveys of quail on Williams’ 1,790-acre undeveloped land holdings in Orangeburg County. Called Willcreek, the large tract was deemed a “farm” by Williams and a “plantation” by prosecutors. Williams once owned all the property but since has passed it on to his four adult children.

In a statement to the judge, Williams took responsibility for the killings and said the past four years “have been the worst four years of my life.” His wife died shortly after he was charged with the killings.

Since each of the seven counts of trapping and killing a protected bird carried a six-month prison sentence and a maximum $15,000 fine, Williams could have received a $105,000 fine and 3 1/2 years behind bars.

Last year, after Williams pleaded guilty and was sentenced, his lawyers, Gedney Howe of Charleston and Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, appealed. During the appeal, the plea and sentence were vacated on a matter unrelated to the appeal and Williams needed to enter a new plea and be resentenced.

At Monday’s hearing, Williams’ lawyers read a letter urging mercy from U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who said: “No one in Orangeburg has done more for his community.”

Appearing in person for Williams, prominent Columbia lawyer I.S. Leevy Johnson told the judge that hawk-killing was an “isolated incident” in an otherwise almost perfect life dedicated to his family and community. State Sen. John Matthews, D-Orangeburg, told the judge that Williams has “a good heart.”

No doubt existed about Williams’ guilt. In late 2013 and early 2014, at the same time Williams was hunting hawks by illegally baiting, trapping and killing them, state and federal wildlife agents were hunting him. Agents acting on an anonymous tip had erected camouflaged video surveillance cameras on his land that caught many of his illegal actions.

This story was originally published September 25, 2017 at 1:57 PM with the headline "Hawk-killing University of South Carolina trustee fined $30,000."