Staff reports
A Beaufort man standing trial for the rape of an acquaintance’s girlfriend in her Paris Island Gateway home relented shortly after the victim testified Tuesday.
Erick Malik Darien, 28, not only pleaded to the 2022 sexual assault and three other related offenses in Beaufort County, but also to a 2016 homicide in Jasper County. Darien entered an “Alford plea,” in which a defendant maintains their innocence but admits that the prosecution’s evidence would likely result in a guilty verdict if brought to trial. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“The victim in this sexual assault case endured hours of physical and psychological agony,” said Trasi Campbell of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted both cases. “Fortunately, she kept her wits, and her actions were pivotal to Eric Darien’s arrest and conviction. In the end, it also brought closure for another victim, in another crime.
“This was a whirlwind day, but I hope these pleas bring comfort and healing to all of the defendant’s victims.”
Darien pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, possession of a weapon during commission of a violent crime and possession of a machine gun in connection to the sexual assault in June 2022. He also pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 2018 shooting death of Davonte Freeman in downtown Ridgeland. He received 20 years each for the sexual assault, kidnapping and voluntary manslaughter charges. He received 10 years for possession of a machine gun and five for possession during a violent crime.
The sentences are to be served concurrently.
In June 2022, Darien traveled with the victim and her boyfriend to Jacksonville, Fla. A dispute broke out between them, and the victim’s boyfriend ordered her to drive Darien back to the Beaufort area in her car. During the trip, Darien, who was armed with a Glock handgun, made numerous lewd and threatening statements to the woman. He told her he had already killed someone and would kill her, too, before taking the woman’s phone.
Arriving in Beaufort, Darien asked to be taken to Lady’s Island. The woman refused, fearing Darien planned to take her to an unfamiliar place and harm her. She agreed instead to let him wait at her home while he called a friend for a ride. However, once inside, Darien sexually assaulted her.
Afterward, Darien ordered the woman to take a shower. She went to the bathroom but only pretended to wash herself. When Darien fell asleep, the woman considered running away but was fearful she would awaken her captor and that he would kill her.
However, she retrieved her phone from Darien’s pants and texted her mother, landlord and boyfriend to tell them she had been raped and needed help.
The woman’s mother alerted authorities and at her daughter’s urging, warned them Darien was armed. The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office arrived to find Darien still asleep. The handgun, which was modified so that it would fire automatically, was at his side.
“This survivor is remarkable,” said 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone. “She not only prevented the escalation of violence, she took steps to preserve evidence that led to her attacker’s conviction.”
Initially, Darien denied having intercourse with the woman but changed his story after a forensic nurse examiner at the Medical University of South Carolina recovered his semen from the woman’s body and the Beaufort County Sheriff’ Office forensics lab confirmed that it matched Darien’s DNA.
Darien then admitted to investigators he had sex with her but said it was consensual, a claim undermined by the victim’s text messages. Data extracted from the woman’s phone also corroborated details she provided to investigators regarding her whereabouts in the hours preceding the attack.
Campbell called nine witnesses during two days of testimony at the Beaufort County Courthouse. Darien decided to change his plea after the victim left the stand and just before the lead investigator on the case was to testify.
He also decided to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Freeman’s 2016 death. Darien and co-defendant Aneisha Young ambushed Freeman and a companion on Adams Street in Ridgeland. Freeman was shot in the back of the head with a .22-caliber pistol. In 2018, a Jasper County jury found Young guilty of murder, attempted murder and possession of a weapon during commission of a violent crime. She received a 40-year sentence.
Circuit Court Judge Brian M. Gibbons handed down Tuesday’s sentences against Darien.
Darien’s criminal history includes convictions for forgery and public disorderly conduct.
Campbell is a member of the Solicitor’s Office Career Criminal Unit, which prosecutes the circuit’s most violent and habitual offenders.
