Columbia Man Sentenced for Failing to Register As Sex Offender

Columbia, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Beth Drake stated today that Kerwin Eugene Brown, age 39, of Columbia, was sentenced to three years in jail for Failure to Register as a Sex Offender, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, § 2250(a).  Chief United States District Judge Terry L. Wooten, of Columbia, presided. 

Evidence presented at the change of plea hearing established that on April 12, 2005, Brown pled guilty to Assault and Battery of a High and Aggravated Nature in the Richland County Court of General Sessions.  During the plea colloquy, the judge required that Brown register as a sex offender.  He was then sentenced to eight years in prison.

Brown moved to New York in 2013 and came to the attention of the FBI for unrelated activities.  Agents determined that Brown had been living in New York for at least six months and had not registered as a sex offender.

When FBI agents interviewed Brown on November 11, 2016, Brown indicated he moved to New York to pursue a music career.  He was living in the Trinidadian community in Queens and Brooklyn and was working construction and carpentry.  He acknowledged registering as a sex offender in April 2010 and through 2013, but he stopped when he moved to New York. 

The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Assistant United States Attorney Winston David Holliday, Jr. of the Columbia office prosecuted the case.

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