BEAUFORT, S.C. (Jan. 8, 2026) — A 25-year-old Ridgeland man is headed to prison after city of Beaufort officers caught him with a handgun modified to fire as an automatic weapon.
Emanuelle Hargrove Jr. pleaded guilty as indicted Thursday in Beaufort County General Sessions Court to a charge of possession of a machine gun. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
“This guilty plea reflects our commitment to holding people accountable for possessing illegal automatic weapons, which pose a serious risk to public safety,” said Trasi Campbell of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case. “People often think of ‘machine guns’ as military-style or military-grade weapons, but these days, criminals can convert a handgun to an automatic weapon with a modification that is easy to conceal and cheap to produce.
“That makes them especially dangerous, and we will continue to pursue these cases vigorously.”
The charge stems from a Jan. 8, 2024, traffic stop shortly after 3 a.m. on Lady’s Island. A Beaufort Police officer patrolling near Bay and Carteret streets noticed a Nissan Altima with a non-functioning brake light crossing the Woods Memorial Bridge in downtown Beaufort. The officer pulled the vehicle’s driver, in which Hargrove was a passenger, on Sea Island Parkway near Whitehall Park.
During the stop, the officer smelled burnt marijuana and conducted a probable-cause search of the vehicle. A Glock 31 handgun equipped with an illegal modification commonly known as a “switch” — which converts a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic weapon — was found beneath the front passenger seat. Testing later identified Hargrove’s DNA on the firearm.
RELATED VIDEO: HOW ‘SWITCHES’ CONVERT HANDGUNS TO AUTOMATIC WEAPONS
Hargrove has no previous convictions but has several pending charges stemming from unrelated incidents. Those charges include attempted murder and possession of a stolen firearm. He is innocent of those charges unless or until proven guilty in court.
Circuit Court Judge Robert Bonds imposed the sentence.
Co-defendant Keianna Nichole Staple of Hilton Head Island, 22, was the driver in the Jan. 8, 2024, incident. She is charged with driving under suspension. Staple is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Campbell is a member of the Solicitor’s Office Career Criminal Unit, which prosecutes the circuit’s most violent and habitual offenders. That team has secured convictions against 538 of the 591 defendants it has prosecuted since its formation in 2009.
Emanuelle Hargrove Jr.
