CHARLESTON, SC (Dec. 18, 2020) – A convicted felon from Beaufort who was found with drugs and stolen guns in 2018 and again in 2019 has been sent to federal prison.
Tovorris Devon Jenkins, 33, of Woodward Avenue, pled guilty in September to one count of felon in possession of a firearm and one count of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and powder cocaine. He was sentenced Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Charleston to 151 months in prison.
There is no parole in the federal system, meaning Jenkins will serve his entire 12 ½-year sentence, day for day.
Jenkins’ conviction stems from a Sept. 15, 2018, traffic stop, in which Beaufort County Sheriff’s deputies found two loaded handguns, ammunition, cash and drug paraphernalia. Both firearms had been stolen, one from a law-enforcement officer’s house two days before the traffic stop.
Less than a year later, in May 2019, Jenkins was again found with illegal drugs and a weapon. As local law enforcement officers served Jenkins with a federal arrest warrant, they discovered two bags of drugs, a loaded pistol, a digital scale and two cellphones. The pistol had been stolen from an owner in Hampton County.
“Jenkins’ criminal record includes convictions in state court dating back to 2009, but he had never served more than a year behind bars,” said Special U.S. Attorney Carra Henderson, who prosecuted the case. “By using the federal system’s more robust laws and penalties, we were able to help make our local community a safer place.”
Henderson is a 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office prosecutor but works in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charleston as part of a partnership that was started by 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone in 2015. Since becoming the first assistant solicitor in South Carolina to embed with federal prosecutors, Henderson has earned more than 50 convictions against federal defendants.
Henderson is also part of the Solicitor’s Office Career Criminal Unit, which has earned convictions against 364 of the 378 defendants it has prosecuted since its formation in late 2008.
