Charleston, South Carolina — Alouis Levorge Taylor, 37, of North Charleston, was sentenced to thirteen years in federal prison after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and to possessing cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute.
Evidence presented to the court showed that on March 1, 2018, officers with the Charleston Police Department were on patrol in the Bridgeview apartment complex and approached a parked car running without lights. Taylor was sitting alone in the car, and officers could smell marijuana and see a bag of white powder in plain view. Instead of stepping out as requested, Taylor reversed and almost struck an officer with his driver-side door. He then attempted to drive away, plowing into a parked car, and driving erratically through the parking lot before fleeing on foot. Officers discovered Taylor’s abandoned vehicle nearby with a broken axel. There was a bag of cocaine in the cupholder and a loaded gun hidden behind a panel near the door. Officers also found five pounds of marijuana abandoned nearby and discovered that Taylor’s vehicle had been modified to install a secret compartment in the passenger seat.
Taylor, who was already on federal supervision for a previous offense involving guns and drugs, was arrested soon thereafter. He was charged federally and pled guilty on November 19, 2021. Taylor has a long criminal history, which includes multiple prior convictions for gun and drug offenses and for assaulting police.
United States District Judge Richard M. Gergel sentenced Taylor to 156 months in federal prison, to be followed by a six-year term of court-ordered supervision. There is no parole in the federal system.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Charleston Police Department.
This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), 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. Assistant United States Attorneys Chris Schoen and Whit Sowards prosecuted the case.
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