By Delayna Earley and Mike McCombs
The Island News
On Friday, July 19, two of the men arrested June 11 for sex trafficking in Beaufort County will begin having their preliminary hearings at the Beaufort County Detention Center.
Guy Frank Talley III, 27, of Okatie, and William James Youmans, 34, of Beaufort, are scheduled to appear for their preliminary hearings at 9:30 a.m., before Magistrate Judge LaShonda Green Scott, according to court documents.
The third man arrested in Beaufort, Alban Bryan, 63, of St. Helena Island, does not currently have a preliminary hearing date posted to his judicial records as of Tuesday, June 25.
Bryan is being represented by Public Defender Colin J. Hamilton, but the other two men do not have documented representation, according to court records.
Hunter Swanson with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office is listed as the prosecutor in all three cases.
The preliminary hearings for Talley and Youmans were originally scheduled for Friday, June 28, but Swanson asked for a continuance, moving the date back.
While there have not been any official updates from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) regarding the sex trafficking enterprise in Beaufort and Jasper Counties, there are a few new details that have emerged.
A man and a woman were arrested by Hardeeville City Police and while Chief Sam Woodward has told The Island News that the arrests are connected to the sex trafficking enterprise, as of Tuesday, June 25, a spokesperson from SLED had not been able to confirm the connection.
As previously reported, Terrance Lamar Fields, 50, was arrested and charged with Trafficking in Persons, Victim Under 18 Years of Age, and according to court documents he is still confined at Jasper County Detention Center and has not had his preliminary hearing.
Woodward said that Fields was arrested as a “John,” which is a term used for a male client of prostitution who pays for or trades something of value for sexual acts.
“He was arrested because he was one of the persons having sexual relations with these juveniles,” Woodward said.
Additionally, a 20-year-old woman named Ilaife Sylvia Meredith from Beaufort was arrested by Hardeeville City Police on June 13 and charged with Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor, according to court records.
Woodward told The Island News that Meredith was arrested in Hampton County and brought back to Jasper County where she was detained at the Jasper County Detention Center.
Court records show that both Meredith and Fields were arrested by Master Patrol Officer Angela Serrano with the City of Hampton Police Department.
Ilaife Sylvia Meredith was misidentified in a previous article based on information posted to the City of Hardeeville Police Department’s Facebook page. Her first and middle names were transposed.
“The only thing I can tell you is that she facilitated in transporting some of the underage people from Beaufort to Hardeeville and gave them a place to stay in hiding while all this was going on,” said Chief Woodward. “That’s all I can tell you so far in that investigation with her.”
Meredith had her bond hearing on June 13 and was released on a $10,000 Surety Bond on June 17.
Her first court appearance is scheduled for Friday, August 23 at 9 a.m. in Jasper County.
To summarize the case, four men and a woman, so far, have been arrested in connection with a human trafficking operation in Beaufort County.
Bryan, Talley, and Youmans face the most serious charge of Trafficking In Persons, Victim Under 18 Years of Age. They remain confined at the Beaufort County Detention Center.
A source has confirmed to The Island News thatJaquan Duvall Barnes, 28, of Port Royal, who recently escaped from the Jasper County Detention Center, is connected to the case, as well. He escaped the day before the arrest warrants in the case were served.
Barnes already faces the same charge following his March 5 arrest after he reportedly ran from police during a traffic stop. He was found with an underage girl who had been reported missing from Beaufort County in the car with him.
Barnes remains at large.
According to sources, law enforcement, led by the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), conducted raids June 11 at several Beaufort County residences, collecting evidence and making several arrests in relation to a human trafficking operation in Beaufort County.
These sources told The Island News that several men had used the promise of employment to lure multiple under-aged females to a location or locations where they were instead drugged, plied with alcohol, held against their will and forced to have sex with paying customers.
The dates during which the trafficking took place, according to arrest warrants, were from February 1, 2024 through March 5, 2024.
Little is known publicly about the victims in this case except there are at least several. Sources have confirmed to The Island News there are multiple victims and that at least one of the victims is as young as 14.
Though SLED confirmed the investigation and the initial arrests, it has provided little additional information.
According to SLED’s news release, “the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, the Beaufort Police Department, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, the Hardeeville Police Department, the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations are working together on the active and ongoing investigation.”
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
