Ex-SC church volunteer pleads guilty to felony child sex crimes. Gets no prison time.
A former South Carolina church youth volunteer will avoid prison but must register as a sex offender and wear a GPS ankle monitor for life after admitting to illegally touching children in crimes that spanned years, according to York County court records and lawyers in the case.
William Pinckney Carpenter III, 64, of Chester, pleaded guilty Wednesday to four felony counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child in a hearing at the Moss Justice Center in York for crimes that went from 2011 to 2021, documents show.
Carpenter pleaded guilty to touching children over their clothes, said prosecutor Misti Shelton, 16th Circuit assistant deputy solicitor. The crimes happened when Carpenter was a church volunteer at two Baptist churches in Rock Hill and York, at a private home, and aboard a bus during a church activity, Shelton said.
Judge Dan Hall sentenced Carpenter after agreeing to accept the negotiated plea and sentence deal made between Carpenter and prosecutors, said Shelton and Carpenter’s lawyer, Montrio Belton of Rock Hill. A 15-year prison concurrent sentence on each of the four convictions was suspended to probation as part of the deal, according to the lawyers and court documents in the case.
A conviction can carry up to 15 years prison for each charge under South Carolina law.
A plea agreement means the victims will not have to go through a trial where they would have had to publicly testify, and there is always a chance of a not-guilty verdict.
Probation, sex registry
Shelton, the prosecutor, said after meeting with victims and getting their input, the guilty plea and sentencing deal that mandates lifetime monitoring and Carpenter registering as a sex offender is an appropriate resolution. Probation and the sex registry have strict requirements concerning contact with children, counseling, residency, and other rules Carpenter must adhere to, Shelton said.
Carpenter had no prior record and accepted responsibility by pleading guilty, Belton said. Carpenter must pay for the lifetime GPS monitoring and conform with all sex offender registry and probation rules, Belton said.
“Mr. Carpenter acknowledged in open court his misdeeds,” Belton said after court. “Hopefully this gives closure to all parties.”
Three of the convictions were standard guilty pleas where Carpenter admitted the crimes, and the fourth involving the bus case is what is called an Alford guilty plea, Shelton and Belton said. In an Alford plea, a defendant pleads guilty but does not have to admit guilt, yet he accepts that there is a likelihood of conviction if the case went to trial, the lawyers said.
Carpenter was first arrested by York County Sheriff’s Office detectives in 2022, then the State Law Enforcement Division arrested him on an additional charge last year.
Offenders in South Carolina who are on probation or on the sex offender registry are listed on public Websites. The S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services lists offenders. The state sex offender registry is administered by SLED and offenders have to register with the sheriff’s office in their county of residence. The public can view sex offender registry offenders by name or location.
This story was originally published March 8, 2024 at 8:43 AM.
