After a vulgar video visit, Beaufort inmate charged with felony sex crime
An 18-year-old murder suspect being held at the Beaufort County Detention Center was charged with a felony sex crime for allegedly asking a 16-year-old acquaintance to expose herself over the jail’s video call software for inmate visitation.
Jeremiah Kieyonte Warren, of St. Helena Island, was charged Monday with first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, a felony that involves creating a “visual representation” of a minor engaged in sexual activity or nudity. It is punishable by 3 to 20 years in prison under South Carolina law.
Warren has been at the jail since September 2024, when he was one of four people arrested in connection with the murder of 17-year-old Ari’Anna Mulligan outside a Burton apartment complex earlier that month. Those charges remained pending.
Police say the teen girl complied after Warren asked her to “expose herself” over a video call with the inmate March 24. All visitation calls made through the detention center’s adopted software, ICSolutions, are recorded and can be monitored by jail staff and law enforcement.
The 16-year-old girl, who was not identified by police due to being underage, was also petitioned to Family Court on the same felony charge of sexual exploitation because “both parties willingly engaged in the act of manufacturing pornographic material involving a minor,” according to an incident report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
The Beaufort County Detention Center is primarily a facility for pre-trial detainees, some of whom remain in the facility for years awaiting trial after being denied bond.
Like many others across the country, the jail suspended in-person visitation for inmates’ friends and family following the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Residents without internet access can still participate in video visits via built-in screens in the facility’s visitation center.
‘Keep going till the visit cuts off’
A sergeant with the Sheriff’s Office was reviewing past visitation recordings on April 10 when he came across Warren’s video call from about two weeks earlier, the police report says.
In the recorded visit, Warren reportedly asked the 16-year-old to expose herself through the camera after requesting to see her tattoos. Other inmates could be seen watching the screen from behind Warren.
“Why you stop? I said keep going till the visit cuts off,” Warren was quoted saying in the report. “We got 30 seconds left. Do what you was just doing.”
The sergeant later called the 16-year-old’s father to inform him of the incident and his daughter’s charge in Family Court. The girl’s father said “he did not know his daughter was even talking to someone who was incarcerated,” according to the police report.
Presented with the new arrest warrant, Warren reportedly told police he did not know the girl was 16 years old. The sergeant noted he didn’t believe that claim due to Warren and the girl “attending Beaufort High School at the same time.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2025 at 1:50 PM.
