SC man gets 30 years for Rock Hill drugs, gun. ‘Absurd’ or repeat felon justice?
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A repeat offender convicted again in York County criminal court this week of trafficking drugs with a gun has been sentenced to 30 years in prison under South Carolina’s mandatory sentencing laws.
Prosecutors say Nathaniel Jaquantis Adams repeatedly committed drug and weapon crimes — even while on parole. But his lawyer said mandatory sentencing laws are too harsh and convicted killers can get less time.
A jury needed only about an hour after a two-day trial to convict Adams late Tuesday of third-offense trafficking methamphetamine, possession of a weapon during a violent crime, possession of a gun by someone convicted of a felony, and other drug offenses.
The trafficking charge for Adams having just under 20 grams of meth carries 25 to 30 years under South Carolina law. Visiting Judge Keith Kelly sentenced Adams to the 30-year max for the trafficking and made the sentences for the gun charges and other drugs concurrent.
Prosecutors: Adams repeatedly committed drug, gun crimes
Adams, 38, was arrested after a September 2024 traffic stop in Rock Hill where police video from a patrol car and at the law enforcement center showed he had the drugs, said prosecutor Leslie Robinson, 16th Circuit senior solicitor. Video also showed Adams trying to throw the meth into a garbage can at the police station, said Robinson, who prosecuted the case with Will Anderson.
Adams has previous convictions for DUI resulting in death and failure to stop for police from 2006, when he got 15 years in prison, plus drug and weapons convictions in both South Carolina and Union County, N.C., after he got out, Robinson said. At the time of his arrest in September 2024, Adams was on parole for drug and gun charges from the North Carolina convictions, records show.
The jury did not hear about Adams’ past convictions during the trial before finding him guilty, but his criminal history came up at sentencing, lawyers in the case said.
Methamphetamine is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. And felons are barred from having guns.
Under South Carolina laws for many hard drugs — based on weight and if someone has past convictions — sentencing for repeat offenders is a mandatory 25 years or more.
“This is a very stiff sentence, but this is a person who previously took a life before and has shown he repeatedly possesses drugs and guns,” Robinson said after court.
Defense lawyer: Mandatory sentence means public pays
Adams rejected guilty plea offers of 15 and 20 years prison beforehand and exercised his constitutional right to a trial, according to lawyers in the case.
Adams’ attorney, Fred Davis of the 16th Circuit Public Defender’s Office, said after the trial that Adams was “clearly a user” of drugs but was not someone who brings the narcotics into the country. The state-required severity of the sentence is “absurd,” Davis said.
“He was not a danger to anyone but himself,” Davis said of Adams.
The state’s mandatory sentencing laws for the drug crime means taxpayers will now have to pay for decades of incarceration, Davis said. Mandatory minimums for drug crimes take away judicial discretion about the facts of a case, leaving drug offenders to often face prison terms that can be longer than homicides where the conviction is for manslaughter or other offenses less than murder, Davis said.
“In South Carolina you can get less time for killing someone,” Davis said.
Adams is appealing the verdict and sentence, Davis said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2025 at 1:36 PM with the headline "SC man gets 30 years for Rock Hill drugs, gun. ‘Absurd’ or repeat felon justice?."
