SLED warrants offer look into alleged sex trafficking scheme in Beaufort Co.; 5 arrested
Arresting documents newly released by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division provide insights into an alleged sex trafficking operation run out of residential homes in northern Beaufort County. The multi-department probe precipitated a rapid chain of arrests earlier this week — but it was unclear as of Thursday if the case was part of a larger ring of organized sexual abuse.
The case is a collaboration between the federal Homeland Security Investigations and several local law enforcement agencies, including the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office and the city police departments of Beaufort and Hardeeville.
Homeland Security Investigations commonly partners with municipal or county law enforcement for investigations into sex trafficking allegations, notably during recent raids on two properties belonging to rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.
A dark ‘scheme’ in Beaufort County
SLED affidavits say the state agency found significant evidence of a human sex trafficking scheme taking place in at least two of the suspects’ homes in Beaufort and St. Helena Island. The three defendants charged with trafficking — Alban Bryan, 63, of St. Helena Island; Guy Frank Talley, 27, of Okatie; and William James Youmans, 34, of Beaufort — recruited an unknown number of victims into the operation while knowing they were under 18, according to the documents.
Bryan and Youmans allegedly provided “housing and narcotics” to an underage girl while encouraging her to participate in the trafficking plot, which led to their charges for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The two men reportedly knew the victims had been reported missing, one of whom by the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
Talley was also charged with second and third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor for allegedly possessing and distributing sexually explicit imagery of children on his cellphone. His warrants do not specify whether the minor depicted in the material was also a victim in the trafficking case.
A fourth suspect named in the SLED release, 37-year-old St. Helena resident Samuel Cyrus Blackmon, was charged only with simple possession of marijuana on Sunday. Agency spokesperson Renée Wunderlich would not say whether his arrest stemmed from the broader investigation into the sex trafficking scheme.
A fifth arrest came Monday, when the Hardeeville Police Department jailed 49-year-old Beaufort resident Terrance Fields on the same child trafficking charge. Chief of Police Sam Woodward said the case was related to SLED’s investigation, but Wunderlich could not confirm the connection Thursday afternoon.
The warrants provided by SLED indicate the crimes in question were committed in February and March of 2024, suggesting a monthslong investigation that preceded the suspects’ apprehension on Sunday. Wunderlich would not say how long SLED had been involved in the case or how authorities were alerted to the alleged trafficking operation.
None of the five suspects were listed in SLED’s state sex offender registry, a database containing the names of most South Carolina residents who have been convicted of sex crimes. While Bryan and Fields appeared to have no significant criminal record in Beaufort and Jasper counties, the rest of the group carries dozens of prior convictions: Blackmon for drug possession, domestic violence and lying to police; Talley for trafficking cocaine, burglary and possession of a stolen pistol; and Youmans for theft, animal cruelty and felony assault.
This week’s arrests comes three months after Port Royal resident Jaquan Duvall Barnes, already a convicted sex offender, was jailed for the same trafficking charge after Hardeeville police reportedly pulled him over to find a missing underage girl in his car.
As of Thursday afternoon, Barnes was still on the run following his escape from the Jasper County Detention Center earlier this week. SLED quickly took over the manhunt and assumed an investigation into how the inmate managed to slip away.
Anyone with additional information on this case or others is encouraged to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888 or text 233733 (BeFree). Tipsters can also contact SLED directly at 803-896-7400 or tips@sled.sc.gov.
