Beaufort man gets 25 years for kidnapping. He still faces charges in a 2015 slaying

A Beaufort man who held his roommate’s friend at gunpoint was sentenced to 25 years after being found guilty of kidnapping.

Varsheen “Twiz” Smith, 42, was convicted in the Oct. 25, 2015, kidnapping of Andre Frazier, according to a news release from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

Smith also was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He received five-year sentences for each of the gun charges, to be served concurrently with the kidnapping sentence.

Frazier went to Smith’s house on Green Street in Beaufort to visit Smith’s roommate, Ver’mon Steve, according to the news release. Steve wasn’t home, and Smith — along with another man — forced Frazier into the house.

“This defendant terrorized Mr. Frazier by tying his hands behind his back with a belt, stuffing a sock into his mouth and pointing a gun at his stomach,” Assistant Solicitor Mary Concannon Jones said in the release. “By luck, Beaufort police officers were responding to a noise complaint as Mr. Frazier was bound in a back bedroom. If those officers hadn’t shown up when they did, it’s likely this case would have had a very different outcome.”

“I don’t know what would have happened to me if the police weren’t out there,” Frazier testified, according to the news release. “I didn’t even have time to pray. I was just waiting for that gun to go ‘pop’.”

Smith still faces a pending charge of accessory after the fact to murder in Steve’s death.

Steve’s remains were found Nov. 18, 2015, on Pea Patch Road on St. Helena Island.

Charges also are pending against Tyrone Wallace, 23, of St. Helena Island. He is charged in Steve’s murder and Frazier’s kidnapping.

This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 9:36 AM with the headline "Beaufort man gets 25 years for kidnapping. He still faces charges in a 2015 slaying."