2nd man sentenced to 40 years for role in 2015 Valentines Day home invasions

LEXINGTON COUNTY, SC The second of three suspects charged in two Valentines Day, 2015, home invasions on Doe Trail Drive was sentenced to 40 years in prison, the 11th circuit solicitor’s office announced Friday.

Jahmand McNeill, 23, pleaded guilty 3 weeks before he was to go to trial for the crimes that began around 1 a.m. on February 14, 2015. Co-defendant, Jonathan Christian Hughes, 20, pleaded guilty in April, 2016, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

McNeill and two others, armed with a shotgun and BB gun, broke into the first Dove Trail Drive home and threatened the lives of three children asleep in the home to force compliance from the parents after herding the man and woman into a bathroom shower.

Cell phones, electronics and gaming systems, credit cards and the family Bible were stolen from the home, prosecutors said.

After the loot was divided up, the three men went their separate ways, At this point, McNeill decided to break into a second house “since he had gotten away with it the first time," he said in a statement in the guilty plea.

At the second home, however, the one of the homeowners wrestled his gun away and subdued him after McNeill crawled into the house through a doggy access door. Deputies found credit cards taken during the first home invasion in McNeill’s pockets and other stolen items at his home, prosecutors said.

The victims told the sentencing judge that “McNeill’s actions were violent and have had a long- term detrimental impact on their families and their children,” prosecutors stated.