Argument, gunfire over York County debt ends with 10 years prison for Gaffney shooter

A Gaffney felon who shot another man in York County over a debt in 2016 was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday, prosecutors said.

Townsend O’Neal Dawkins, 35, who had been jailed for more than a year since his arrest, pleaded guilty before a trial set for this week at the Moss Justice Center in York started, according to prosecutors and court documents.

The victim had his arm shattered when Townsend went into the victim’s western York County home and shot the man, said Matthew Shelton, 16th Circuit Senior Assistant Solicitor who prosecuted the case. Dawkins fled and was later arrested in Cherokee County, Shelton said.

While in custody Dawkins admitted to police that he was the shooter, Shelton said.

Townsend pleaded guilty under what is called an Alford guilty plea to charges of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and a second assault charge, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, and malicious injury to the York County jail while in custody, records show. An Alford plea means a defendant does not have to admit guilt but accepts the punishment of a guilty plea by accepting that if there was a trial, prosecutors had enough evidence against him to likely convict him.

Dawkins is a two-time past convicted felon who was previously in prison for drugs and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, prosecutors said.

This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 8:27 AM with the headline "Argument, gunfire over York County debt ends with 10 years prison for Gaffney shooter."