For twice-convicted Rock Hill drug dealer, third time not the charm

A Rock Hill man, previously convicted of dealing drugs, was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of drug trafficking from a 2015 drug sting by York County and Charlotte police.

Shawn Roseberry Bisnauth, 30, has been in jail without bond since his arrest in October 2015, pending the trial this week at Moss Justice Center in York.

In a Sandpiper Drive home in Rock Hill, police found methamphetamine, heroin laced with fentanyl and other drugs, police and prosecutors said.

Bisnauth was investigated and arrested by agents with York County Multijurisdictional Drug Enforcement Unit. The heroin recovered was laced with fentanyl, said Marina Hamilton, lead prosecutor in the case.

Fentanyl, an opioid far stronger than heroin, can be deadly to someone who ingests it unknowingly, Hamilton said.

“It was important to make sure these drugs were taken off the streets and the dealer punished,” Hamilton said. “The seizure of these drugs saved lives in our community.”

The jury found Bisnauth guilty of trafficking heroin, third offense, trafficking meth, third offense, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and failure to stop for police, prosecutors said.

Bisnauth has drug convictions from South Carolina in 2007 and New York in 2010, as well as a firearms conviction in New York in 2011, prosecutors said.

The mandatory sentence for heroin trafficking third offense in South Carolina is 25 years in prison.

Judge Thomas Hughston sentenced Bisnauth to 25 years for all the convictions, plus a $200,000 fine.

The case was prosecuted by Hamilton and Matthew Hogge of the 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 2:57 PM with the headline "For twice-convicted Rock Hill drug dealer, third time not the charm."