Rape investigation leads to marijuana-growing operation and 3 arrests at SC home

Three people were arrested after deputies discovered a marijuana-growing operation at a South Carolina home, where they went to serve warrants for a sex assault reported at the home, according to authorities.

A woman told deputies she saw the drug activity while temporarily staying at the home on Ridgewood Drive in Sumter County, according to a news release from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. She told investigators she was sexually assaulted over the weekend when Rebecca Allyn Miles, 31, and Craig Alan Till Jr., 35, entered her room.

Till held the woman down, kissed her while he removed her clothes and blocked the door to prevent her from leaving the room, according to warrants. Miles helped hold the woman down while Till sexually assaulted her.

When investigators entered the home at 6 p.m. Sunday, they saw “a large quantity of marijuana” on the coffee table in front of Miles, Till and a third suspect, Billy Joe McCoy Jr., 26, according to the release. Clippings from a marijuana plant were on the floor by Till’s feet.

Also in the living room were multiple black canvas-style planters with what appeared to be marijuana in the bottoms of the planters, and recently cut marijuana stalks sticking out.

In a bedroom, deputies found two large “grow tents” with a running fan and dehydrator and multiple planters with marijuana plants measuring 2 to 3 feet long, deputies said. A container in that room held 19 marijuana seedlings a few inches high, and plant clippings were found on the floor.

Investigators found no evidence that they were growing any plants besides marijuana at the home.

Till told investigators “he was growing marijuana in the hopes of perfecting his methods so that he and Miles could move to Colorado to professionally produce the plants to supply dispensaries,” the release states.

Till, Miles and McCoy are each charged with manufacturing marijuana, according to the sheriff’s office. Till and Miles each face an additional charge of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for the rape.

First-degree criminal sexual conduct carries up to 30 years in prison, under South Carolina law.

This story was originally published March 19, 2019 at 8:25 AM.