‘They’re going to kill me.’ Informant faked robbery in drug, gun buy, SC agent says
Police could hear Dominique Newsome crying over the surveillance equipment they placed in his car for a set up against a black market gun seller and drug dealer.
“They are going to kill me,” Newsome said during what appeared to be a botched drug deal in Lexington County last May.
Police and federal agents converged on the area and an immediate search for their confidential informant began.
The urgency, perhaps, wasn’t needed. The tears and the threat against Newsome were a red herring meant to throw police off the scent of a hoax he arranged, according to a police affidavit filed in federal court Friday.
A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agent in Lexington accused Newsome of putting together a fake robbery in order to steal agency money for what was supposed to be a prearranged cocaine and firearms deal in May 2018. Newsome had been an confidential informant for Lexington County Sheriff’s Department in the past, the affidavit says.
Newsome started working with the sheriff’s department as an informant in April 2018. The next month he had a tip for the department that got kicked up to the federal level.
Newsome told department investigator and ATF agent Johnathan Brock that a man wanted to sell an AK-47 assault rifle, a Mac-10 automatic pistol, and a .38 caliber handgun along with two ounces of cocaine, the affidavit says. The deal was set for the next day.
Agents installed surveillance equipment in Newsome’s car and gave him $4,200 cash for the buy, according to the affidavit. They arranged to buy the guns and drugs at the dealer’s house, which was in a neighborhood near the Augusta Highway and Interstate 26 in West Columbia.
When it came time for the purchase, Newsome told the agents the location had to be changed to a house in Red Bank, Brock wrote in the affidavit. Newsome said the seller had some other “serves” or drugs deals to do.
Newsome got to the driveway of the house and the seller got in his car, the affidavit shows. Agents in a remote location watched and listened to what was happening.
“Give it up,” they heard the alleged seller say.
An agent radioed that Newsome was being robbed, according to the affidavit. Law enforcement surrounded the Red Bank home. They arrested everyone at the scene, including the alleged seller, who’s listed as Dayquan Phillps in the affidavit. Newsome’s car was gone, and he wasn’t in the house.
Around then they heard Newsome crying and saying people would kill him over the surveillance equipment, Brock said in the court document. Agents tried to track the informant from his phone, but the phone was dead. The surveillance equipment in the car was dumped. Police found suspected marijuana and cocaine on Phillip’s property which he admitted were his, Brock said in an affidavit.
It wasn’t long before the authorities discovered that they’d been duped.
While under arrest, Phillips told police that Newsome arranged the robbery, the document says. Newsome had sold Phillips a gun which was used in the set up, the affidavit says. He showed the police conversations he had over Facebook Messager with Newsome allegedly setting up the scenario. The phone conversation, which is presented as evidence with the affidavit, appears to show Newsome instructing the Phillips on how to make the robbery sound real.
In pictures taken by police of the conversation, Newsome appears to instruct Phillips to “pull the tool,” a slang term for a gun, and say “Get yo police b---- a-- out of here.”
Newsome arranged for Phillips to get $1,700 of the $4,200, Brock said. Only $3,500 was recovered at Phillips’ home, hidden inside a dog food bag under the sink.
The next day, police arrested Newsome and he admitted to setting up the robbery, according to Brock.
Federal Magistrate Judge Paige Gossett signed Brock’s affidavit to charge Newsome with theft of government property Friday. Phillips was charged with weapon and drug possession with intent to sell in federal court shortly after the incident. He pleaded not guilty, court records show.
Theft of government property over $1,000 is punishable with up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. A federal conviction of possession with intent to sell can carry between five years and life in prison, depending on the quantity and the criminal record of the defendant.
Phillips pleaded guilty to state charges of drug possession to sell and unlawfully carrying a pistol in March 2018, court records show. He was on probation at the time of the alleged set-up.
The reported phone conversation between the two appears to indicate Newsome and Phillips were going to use the money to pay lawyers, the affidavit shows.