Dealer who had Lake Wylie fentanyl lab kept selling in jail. He’s sentenced
A Rock Hill man who was part of a Lake Wylie fentanyl conspiracy then continued dealing while in jail has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, officials said.
Timothy Markee Gayton, 33, joins his twin brother, Timario, in federal prison after both pleaded guilty to being in the drug trade, which included what was described as the largest seizure of fentanyl ever in York County, in 2022.
U.S. District Court Judge Sherri Lydon sentenced Gayton to 25 years Thursday in Columbia, said Veronica Hill, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Gayton pleaded guilty last year to both his role in the drug conspiracy and continued dealing even while locked up. He pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy in the drug lab and to aiding and abetting the distribution of 400 grams of fentanyl while he was jailed on the original conspiracy charge, according to prosecutors and court documents.
Gayton is the last of five people involved in the fentanyl lab — which Lydon called in previous hearings a “death factory” — to be sentenced after the DEA and local drug agents raided a mobile home near Lake Wylie.
Prosecutors said Gayton was dealing drugs before federal agents put him in jail after the raid, where he still set up drug deals over the phone.
“He continued his criminal behavior while being detained at the Lexington County Detention Center while awaiting trial on his first federal charges when he arranged the delivery of two half kilogram of fentanyl packages,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Major and Elliot Daniels wrote in court documents. “That is, while he was pending before this Court, he continued to distribute kilogram-quantity fentanyl. That recent history shows an extraordinary disregard for the federal process, his pending federal charges, and the law in a way that is unique across all the related defendants in these schemes. His sentence must reflect that harm.”
Gayton and his lawyers said in court documents that he got involved with a Mexican cartel.
Bust was largest ever in York County
In the October 2022 raid of the drug lab close to the Charlotte border, police seized over 60 pounds of drugs, 150,000-plus pills, plus pill presses, guns and money. The York County Multijuridictional Drug unit and federal DEA worked the case for months.
At a news conference about the arrest and seizure, South Carolina officials, including Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman, said the 60-plus pounds of fentanyl taken from the trailer was enough to kill the entire 5 million-plus population of the state.
Fentanyl is around 50 times more potent than heroin and has been a part of overdose deaths locally and across the country.
Defense: Gayton’s gambling addiction led to drug dealing
Two of Gayton’s lawyers, Louis Lang and Elizabeth Kelly, asked in court documents for a lighter sentence, saying that Gayton saved a man in an SUV hit by a fallen tree as a teenager, and had a gambling addiction “disease” that fueled his drug dealing.
Gayton claimed to have won almost $1 million gambling in Florida a year before he was arrested, then lost it all while owing the cartel money, Gayton said in court documents.
“To cover my gambling debts and pay back what I owed the cartel, I went deeper into cocaine. I would gamble too much, lose cartel money, and find myself desperate to pay them back,” Gayton wrote in the court filing. “That’s when I made a dangerous decision — I turned back to drug dealing. I knew drugs were deadly. I knew people were overdosing. But the money it brought in was unlike anything else. I told myself that I just need to make enough to get ahead, to pay any debts, and then I’d stop.”
He claimed to have, at times, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars while gambling, saying he then sold drugs to make it back, filings show.
“By this time, gambling wasn’t just a habit — it controlled my entire life,” Gayton wrote in the court statement. “I was playing poker against millionaires, betting on sports, running a gambling house, and dealing with the cartel. Some weeks, I would lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. The moment I took a big hit I would turn back to drug dealing to make the money back. The cycle was endless until it all caught up with me. I got arrested. And now, I’m sitting in jail, reflecting on the path I took.”
More than a dozen people who know Gayton sent letters to the court asking for leniency.
Others already in prison for Lake Wylie fentanyl lab
Twin brother Timario Gayton got 15 years last year after pleading guilty.
In a letter that is part of the court file that was sent from prison, Timario Gayton said he’s accepted responsibility and doing his time for what he did. He said his twin brother also pleaded guilty and “is not someone who lived a life of crime.”
“He (Timothy) has acknowledged that he sold drugs, and he has never denied that,” Timario Gayton wrote.
Three other co-conspirators in the conspiracy also pleaded guilty. Quonzy Hope got 15 years. Thomas Anthony Perry received 8 years and Javaris Latrey Johnson got 12 years.
There is no parole in the federal prison system.
