Columbia Gang Member Pleads Guilty in Federal Court to Firearm Charge

Press Release

Columbia, South Carolina — Acting United States Attorney M. Rhett DeHart, announced today that Kevin Shacqile Roney, a/k/a “Kevo,” a/k/a “Valentine Roney,” 26, of Columbia, pleaded guilty in federal court to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Evidence presented to the court showed that at approximately 1:15am on August 18, 2019, officers in the Five Points area of Columbia, observed an individual, later identified as Roney, stash something underneath bushes adjacent to a parking lot. Officers discovered that the item was a loaded 9mm handgun. Therefore, officers set up surveillance and arrested Roney when he returned to retrieve the firearm an hour later.  Roney, a gang member, admitted to placing the firearm underneath the bushes.

Roney is prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition based upon his prior felony convictions.  Roney has prior state convictions for unlawful carrying of a weapon, burglary 3rd degree, and assault and battery 2nd degree.

Roney faces of maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.  United States District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis accepted the guilty plea and will sentence Roney after receiving and reviewing a sentencing report prepared by the United States Probation Office.


The charges against Roney were the result of an investigation by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and the Columbia Police Department, as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. 


Assistant United States Attorney Stacey D. Haynes is prosecuting the case.

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