‘I’m not going to put up with it.’ Judge slams solicitor’s office in long-delayed drug case
The sentencing of a Columbia man for drug charges from 2016 would have been notable Wednesday simply because of the age of the case. But just before Richland County Judge Daniel Coble sentenced Robert Marks to seven years in prison, the judge announced that he was fed up.
“I’m getting these cases, and it’s a heads you win, tails I lose,” Coble told the courtroom, packed with sheriff’s deputies who had turned out to support a tough sentence for Marks, who pleaded guilty to possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute. “If I give him the big sentence (25 years), no harm, no foul, except that I violate my oath. If I give him a light sentence, based on the actions of the solicitor’s office, then all of a sudden it’s the judge’s fault because there’s not a press release going out explaining the context about what has been happening (in this case) for the past seven years.”
The sentencing became a stage for many of the growing tensions that appear to be straining South Carolina’s Fifth Judicial Circuit.
On one side, a campaign led by Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott has criticized a system he has called “catch and release,” where violent offenders have repeatedly been given low bonds and probationary sentences.
On the other side are defense attorneys like state Rep. Todd Rutherford, who represented Marks and argued that sentencing his client to prison for drug charges would not stem the violence in Richland County.
And stuck the in middle is a judiciary, Coble said, who feel that they end up shouldering the blame. “I’m going to kick it right back and call it out,” Coble said, stating he felt claims that judges were not sentencing fairly lacked “context.”
Marks, who already had an extensive criminal history involving multiple drug and weapon convictions, was arrested in 2016 after deputies executed a search warrant on his residence and found approximately 205 grams of cocaine, 8 grams of crack cocaine, 31 ecstasy pills, 1 pound of marijuana and 22 grams of a powdery substance recognized as molly, according to an arrest report.
Deputies also located two handguns — one of which had been reported stolen — drug paraphernalia (scales, baggies and a pipe) and ammunition while searching Marks’ residence.
Marks pleaded guilty to lessened charges in December 2020, prompting Rutherford to request a pre-sentence investigation, which is a report created by the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services to determine whether a defendant is suited for community supervision under any probation program.
The pre-sentence investigation was completed February 2021. Since then, the case appeared to fall completely off the solicitor’s radar.
Melanie Darko, assistant solicitor for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, said the time lapse was due, in part, to a change in prosecutors, adding that she took over the case from former solicitor Sam McGlothin in 2021.
“We have attempted several times to get it scheduled, but for various reasons it did not come to fruition, but we are here today to get it resolved,” Darko said, referring to Marks’ sentencing hearing.
But in bringing attention to a courtroom filled with more than 20 Richland County sheriff deputies — all spectating — along with Lott, and a handful of solicitors with no business before the court, Coble looked to Rutherford to help him understand how “a case older than can be that has been pled down as low as can be,” ended up before him.
While Rutherford told Coble he didn’t know why the case had stalled since 2021 other than what Marko offered in her explanation, he showed no reserve in blasting deputies sitting in the gallery for supposedly wasting taxpayer dollars.
“Twenty-two officers sit here as they tell the county that they can’t go help out at the jail,” Rutherford said, referencing ongoing turmoil at the county’s Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, which is not run by the sheriff’s department. “They can’t go help out as the citizens of Richland County continue to be assaulted, stabbed, killed and raped repeatedly. They don’t have the time to do that, but they can come here.”
Following the hearing, however, Lott rebutted, telling reporters that Rutherford’s remarks concerning the jail “sounded real good, but there was no substance to that whatsoever,” adding that, unlike other sheriffs, his department does not manage the Richland County jail, although they help out when they can.
When asked how he felt about the outcome of Marks’ case, Lott said, “I think justice was served today the best that it could be served. I think the judge made some great points, and (the case delay) wasn’t fair for anybody.”
