NC duo who stole during SC COVID emergency going to prison, but not for looting charge
Two North Carolina men who were the only suspects arrested for looting in York County during the 2020 South Carolina COVID-19 state of emergency have been sentenced to prison — but not for looting.
Ronald Nicholas Miller, 27, of Matthews, N.C., and Justin Andrew Osczepinski, 31, of Charlotte, were sentenced to six years in the S.C. Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to burglary and other charges stemming from a Lake Wylie storage business theft, according to prosecutors and court records.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the looting charges as part of negotiated plea agreements with both suspects.
Miller pleaded guilty last year to burglary and larceny, prison records show.
Osczepinski pleaded guilty Wednesday in York County criminal court to three counts of burglary, possession of meth with intent to distribute, possession of meth, and possession of a stolen vehicle, according to court records and prosecutors.
Leslie Robinson, the 16th Circuit assistant solicitor who prosecuted them, said the facts of the case showed the defendants stole from the storage site during a crime of opportunity, but not because of the pandemic.
“These crimes happened during the state of emergency but were not motivated by the state of emergency,” Robinson said.
A looting conviction during a declared emergency could carry as much prison time as a judge wanted to give. South Carolina law sets no minimum or maximum time.
York County deputies charged both men with looting during a state of emergency along with more than 20 other charges each after they were caught in late March 2020 at the storage site, according to York County Sheriff’s Office records.
Sheriff’s officials in York, Chester and Lancaster counties said the two defendants were the only people charged under the felony looting law that was in effect for weeks in mid-March when S.C. Gov Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. The state of emergency was accompanied by a mandatory stay-at-home order.
This story was originally published February 19, 2021 at 9:15 AM.
