Charleston man sentenced to 18 months in prison for rioting in George Floyd protests
A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a Charleston man to 18 months in prison for his involvement in the civil unrest and destruction that erupted in downtown Charleston last year as demonstrators protested and mourned the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
United States District Judge Richard M. Gergel sentenced Abraham Jenkins, 26, to 18 months in prison, followed by 36 months of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.
Jenkins’ sentencing was announced Thursday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office in South Carolina, evidence presented in court showed Jenkins stood on top of and subsequently damaged a Town of Mount Pleasant Police vehicle, sprayed a fire extinguisher on two separate occasions at police officers who were patrolling Charleston during the protests, and threw a water bottle at a patrolling officer.
Court evidence also showed Jenkins took a burning T-shirt and threw it through a broken back window of a Charleston Police cruiser, causing damage to the vehicle.
“The United States Attorney’s Office will always protect the First Amendment rights of South Carolinians,” Acting U.S. Attorney M. Rhett DeHart said in a statement. “However, when peaceful protests turn into violence and destruction, the violent agitators committing crimes will be brought to justice.”
As part of his sentencing, Jenkins was also ordered to pay $6,987.06 in restitution to the Town of Mount Pleasant Police Department for damages. With two other defendants, Jenkins will also share restitution costs of $1,224.06 to be paid to the Charleston Police Department
A court filing by Jenkins’ attorney, Cameron Jane Blazer of Mount Pleasant, said her client was aware he would have to take responsibility for his actions.
In the letter to the court, his attorney also said Jenkins did not minimize what he had done. Jenkins told law enforcement he had not engaged in the looting of any businesses because “his complaint was against the police, not local store owners or restaurateurs.”
“May 31 did not start with a formal plan. There was no meeting of an organization. There was a sense of urgency. Of grief. Of exhaustion. Of anger,” Jenkins’ attorney wrote.
Blaze said that when Jenkins went downtown to Marion Square, he had expected to see hundreds or thousands protesting the killing of Floyd, who died beneath the knee of Minneapolis police officer.
“But as he walked through the crowd, he saw lackluster energy. Chants that faded out. A lack of focus. He wanted to catalyze what he saw as a complacent, disorganized group. He jumped atop a parked Mount Pleasant police cruiser, stomping, yelling, leading chants. He knew he was taking a risk, openly damaging a police vehicle. But he felt it was a risk worth taking to draw attention to the pervasive problem of extrajudicial killings of black people in America. In Minneapolis. In Baltimore. In Atlanta. In Charleston,” the letter to the court said.
Jenkins is the second person in South Carolina to be sentenced on federal charges stemming from protests and civil disorder in Columbia and Charleston last summer.
The first was Tearra Na’Asia Guthrie, 23, of Charleston, who plead guilty on Oct. 7, 2020, to civil disorder related to the violence and destruction on May 30, 2020.
Besides Jenkins and Guthrie, four other defendants are facing federal charges related to the protests and unrest the weekend of May 30 and May 31, 2020.
According to court records, the remaining four plaintiffs who have been charged or agreed to plead guilty are:
▪ Karlos Gibson-Brown, 24, of Columbia, has agreed to plead guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition for a riot-related incident on May 31.
▪ Marcello Woods, 28, of Columbia, has been charged with destroying a Columbia Police Department vehicle by means of fire for riot-related conduct on May 30. He was arraigned in federal court last year and is pleading not guilty. He was released on a $25,000 bond.
▪ Kelsey Jackson, 28, of Charleston, has agreed to plead guilty to arson of a Charleston Police Department patrol car on May 30.
▪ Orlando King, 31, of North Charleston, has agreed to plead guilty to a violation of the Anti-Riot Act related to the violence and destruction on May 30 and to being a felon in possession of a firearm stemming from an unrelated incident on April 25.
The May 25 killing of Floyd, a Black man whose final breaths were captured on a bystander’s cellphone video that showed him gasping under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis, ignited a call for police reform on a scale not seen since the civil rights movement.
Massive gatherings for racial justice cropped up across the country, with protesters demanding justice in the streets.
In Charleston, the protests had been largely peaceful.
But on the night of May 30 and the early morning hours of May 31, peaceful protest in the Holy City gave way to a violent night of civil unrest.
An after-action report prepared by the Charleston Police Department, which outlined what happened from the perspective of law enforcement, detailed what unfolded nearly every hour as police responded to the protests and riots that weekend.
Among the findings, the report found that authorities had developed an insufficient plan with no contingency in place to respond to the protests, which turned violent and overwhelmed officers as day turned to night.
This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 3:12 PM.
