Port Royal Man Arrested in Florida After Escaping From Jasper County Jail

Port Royal Man Arrested in Florida After Escaping From Jasper County Jail

Following a month-long manhunt, Jaquan Duvall Barnes, a 29-year-old man from Port Royal, South Carolina, who reportedly escaped from the Jasper County Detention Center on June 10, has finally been apprehended. The authorities in Jacksonville, Florida arrested and currently detain him at the John E. Goode Pre-Trial Detention Facility as of Sunday evening, July 7, 2024.

Connection to a Sex Trafficking Operation in Beaufort County

Interestingly, Barnes’ arrest has a deeper, more sinister layer, as he is also considered a suspect in a sex-trafficking operation centered in Beaufort County. Initially captive for another crime, he became a jailbird due to a traffic stop incident in which police found him in the company of an underage girl, reported missing from the county. Barnes faces charges of Trafficking In Persons, Victim Under 18 Years of Age — 1st offense, and unlawful possession of marijuana.

Barnes’ criminal record features previously pled guilty charges to two separate counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and pending accusations related to pimping a minor and inducing a person for sexual servitude in Fulton County, Georgia. Further, Barnes is also under the scanner for additional counts related to his assumed involvement in the notorious Beaufort County sex trafficking cartel, leading to the apprehension of four men and a woman in June.

Further Apprehensions and Charges

Shortly after Barnes’ escape, the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) arrested Alban Bryan, Guy Frank Talley III, and William James Youmans on June 11. All three men face the charges of Trafficking in Persons, Victim Under 18 Years of Age and are still confined in the Beaufort County Detention Center.

Also arrested were Terrance Lamar Fields and Ilaife Sylvia Meredith. The former charged with similar trafficking allegations and the latter for Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor in the case.

The Continuing Investigation

Led by SLED, law enforcement officers conducted several raids on June 11, targeting different residences across Beaufort County. The arrests and the recovery of substantial evidence indicate a systematic human trafficking operation across the region. Interviews with sources reveal that several men used job promises to attract multiple underage females to specified locations, where the victims were drugged, held captive, and coerced into sexually serving paying customers. The trafficking allegedly took place from February 1, 2024, through March 5, 2024.

While SLED officially announced the investigation and the arrests in a news release on June 13, the victims’ specifics remain undisclosed. Multiple sources have verified the existence of several victims, one known to be as young as 14 years old.

With this ongoing and active investigation, multiple agencies are cooperating, including the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, the Hardeeville Police Department, the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, the Beaufort Police Department, and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations.