Case of Orangeburg County hawk killings by USC trustee unresolved

This story was updated May 25, 2016, to correct the location of Charles Williams' property.

A federal criminal case involving endangered wildlife against a politically connected member of the University of South Carolina board of trustees appears stalled and has gone nowhere since the trustee appeared in federal court in January and pleaded not guilty.

Charles Williams, 65, an Orangeburg lawyer, is charged with seven counts of unlawfully trapping and killing multiple federally protected migratory hawks. He has pleaded not guilty.

Williams’ two lawyers in the case are Gedney Howe, a Charleston criminal defense lawyer who has represented such clients as former House Speaker Bobby Harrell, and state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, who is in Williams’ law firm.

On Friday, Hutto told The State newspaper that no follow-up court date has yet been scheduled.

Also on Friday, assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Klumb also said, “No court appearances (have been) set as of yet.”

Three associates of Williams also pleaded not guilty to fewer, but similar, charges at Williams’ first court appearance in January.

Jimmy Aiken, 56, and John Dantzler, 66, are each charged with taking part with Williams in separate, unlawful hawk killings. Alejandro Renteria Noyola, 56, faces a single charge of unlawfully killing a hawk.

Hawks may be killed if someone holds a special federal permit, usually issued for research purposes.

Officials have not said what evidence they will use to try to secure a conviction in the case, which involves alleged illegal activities on private property, the vast 1,790-acre Willcreek Plantation, owned by Williams.

State and federal wildlife officers are allowed on private property to conduct surveillance as long as they do not go in the vicinity of houses on such property. In a 2014 case on an 8,000-acre S.C. plantation in Jasper County, wildlife officers erected hidden surveillance cameras and gathered evidence that way, according to court documents.

Federal authorities have not revealed a motive for Williams’ alleged hawk killings. However, some owners of large S.C. land tracts buy thousands of quail for hunting purposes. Quail are tiny game birds that fly only short distances. Hunters like to hunt and kill quail. But hawks hunt quail, depleting the stocks.

All three of Williams’ associates are from Orangeburg County. All four told Gossett they wanted to be represented by the same two attorneys: Howe and Hutto.

Along with Hutto, Williams’ political connections include his late father, state Sen. Marshall Williams, a Democrat who was Senate president pro tem at the time of his death in 1995. Williams’ late wife, Karen, was a judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia.

Williams has been a member of the USC board of trustees since 2010. His term expires in 2018.

The charges are misdemeanors and each carry a six-month maximum prison sentence and a fine of up to $15,000 for each count.

“I didn’t know the damn birds were valuable,” Williams told a State newspaper reporter in January after his court appearance before Magistrate Judge Paige Gossett.

Although Noyola lives in Orangeburg County, he is a Mexican citizen living legally in the United States. Gossett told Noyola his legal status might change if he is convicted.

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Case of Orangeburg County hawk killings by USC trustee unresolved."