Columbia police identify suspect in Five Points burglary, sexual assault
Police have identified a suspect in a burglary and sexual assault in Five Points.
Columbia Police Department investigators have arrest warrants for 39-year-old Robert Drayton.
The University of South Carolina police said that on April 28, Drayton broke into a woman’s home on the 2000 block of Greene Street in the middle of the night and sexually assaulted her. People should not approach Drayton, but immediately call 911, USC police said.
The 2000 block of Greene Street is an area with businesses and apartments about a mile from USC’s Horseshoe.
Drayton has an extensive criminal record and is a registered sex offender, online records showed.
He was convicted of a sexual crime in 2003, according to the South Carolina sex offender registry. He is listed as living in an apartment on the 2000 block of Greene Street.
In 2006, he pleaded guilty to armed robbery, court records showed. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to not registering as a sex offender. The next year, he pleaded guilty to stealing a credit card and petit larceny, according to records. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to domestic violence, burglary, property damage and shoplifting. The next year, he again pleaded guilty to domestic violence. In 2017 and 2020, he pleaded guilty to assault and battery.
For the 2020 assault plea, a judge sentenced Drayton to more than three years in prison after he served about a year and a half in county jail, records said. How Drayton was released by 2021 isn’t clear from online public records.
USC and Columbia police have been investigating the crime together. Columbia Police Department will charge Drayton with criminal sexual conduct and other offenses.
Police asked anyone with information or tips about Drayton’s whereabouts to contact Crimestoppers at 888-274-6372 or www.midlandscrimestoppers.com, and click on the red “Submit a tip” tab.