CHARLESTON, SC (May 10, 2019) – A Walterboro man with a lengthy criminal history has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for multiple drug and firearms offenses, U.S. Attorney Sherri A. Lydon announced Friday.
Marion Katrell Campbell, 38, was convicted in October and sentenced Thursday for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.
United States District Judge Bruce H. Hendricks of Charleston sentenced Campbell to 360 months in prison followed by six years of supervised release.
Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Carra Henderson of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office (pictured) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie Schoen of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charleston prosecuted the case, part of a longstanding partnership to target career criminals in Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton, Colleton and Allendale counties.
“There is no doubt the 14th Circuit is safer as a result of our collaboration with the Justice Department and the prosecution of criminals such as Campbell,” 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone said. “We have now earned convictions against 37 defendants in federal court since we started this partnership in 2015. It has provided another avenue to ridding the community of our most habitual and serious offenders.”
The partnership between the Solicitor’s Office and U.S. Attorney’s Office began in 2015. It allows Henderson to prosecute 14th Circuit offenders in federal court, where penalties for gun, drug and organized-crime offenses are typically more severe than in state courts. Henderson was the first state-level prosecutor in South Carolina to be fully embedded with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Campbell was the driver and sole occupant of a car stopped by Walterboro Police officers for a defective headlight on July 8, 2017. He was arrested for driving under suspension and failure to pay multiple traffic citations. A subsequent K9 search of his vehicle yielded a loaded .38-caliber Charter Arms revolver under the driver’s seat, additional ammunition, plastic bags containing methamphetamine, and plastic baggies used for packaging and distributing drugs.
In all, there were 42 bags of methamphetamine measured out in various weights for distribution, weighing just less than 37 grams in total. After Campbell was arrested, he placed numerous phone calls to his friends and family from jail trying to convince other people to claim the firearm located in the vehicle that night.
Campbell has a lengthy criminal history, which includes convictions for criminal domestic violence, forgery, failure to stop for a blue light, strong arm robbery, multiple drug possessions, and multiple possessions with intent to distribute crack and cocaine.
The case was investigated by the Walterboro Police Department and agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The investigation was part of a South Carolina’s Project CeaseFire, a joint federal, state and local effort to aggressively prosecute firearms offenses. It falls under the broader Project Safe Neighborhoods program, which is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent-crime reduction efforts.
PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime
