Three South Carolina men and one woman were sentenced on Feb. 3, March 13, and April 1, for violent crimes targeting Hispanics in Columbia, South Carolina. Charles Antonio Clippard, 27, was sentenced to 420 months in prison; Michael Joseph Knox, 29, was sentenced to 303 months in prison; Gabriel Brunson, 21, was sentenced to 100 months in prison; and Sierra Fletcher, 34, was sentenced to 200 months in prison.
All four defendants previously pleaded guilty to carjacking, conspiracy, firearms, and criminal civil rights charges in connection with the string of armed robberies. According to court documents, beginning in January 2021 and continuing through February 2021, the four defendants conspired to target Hispanic victims for armed robberies. The group would wait for their victims at gas stations and grocery stores and then follow them to their homes or other locations to rob their victims at gunpoint. All four defendants admitted their involvement in a Jan. 30, 2021, armed robbery and carjacking targeting a Hispanic victim after following him from a gas station to his home. In another series of robberies on Jan. 30, 2021, three members of the group carjacked one victim, and invaded the home of another group of victims. The group stole cash, cellphones, driver’s licenses, and credit cards from multiple victims.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mac Warner of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Brook Andrews, and Acting Special Agent in Charge Reid Davis of the FBI Columbia Field Office made the announcement.
The FBI Columbia Field Office investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Garner for the District of South Carolina and Trial Attorneys Katherine McCallister and Andrew Manns of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section prosecuted the case.