Hartsville man pleads guilty to Burglary, Arson

James Dees, Jr., age 28 of Hartsville, SC, pled guilty to two counts of Burglary 2nd Degree and one count of Arson 3rd Degree on Monday, March 17, 2025 in Darlington County General Sessions Court. The charge stemmed from two separate incidences in 2019 where Dees entered property without consent of the owner to commit a crime in Hartsville, SC. The state recommended prison time up to 6 years, despite this being Dees’s first conviction. Judge Brian Gibbons sentenced the defendant to 10 years incarceration suspended to 5 years imprisonment and 3 years probation to follow release. The case was prosecuted by Assistant Solicitor Adam M. Foard.

In the August 2019 incident, Dees entered a property to commit larceny. In a seperate December 2019 incident, Dees entered the SP Coker Cotton Gin and set fire to bales of cotton. The arson was captured on video and the defendant was apprehended a short time later in the clothes he had on in the video which were burned from the incident.

“Dees’s criminal behavior seemed to have escalated quickly during late 2019,” said Assistant Solicitor Foard. “He did not have any criminal convictions prior to these incidents. Still, these are serious property crimes and a prison sentence is appropriate.”

After the plea, Solicitor Mike Burch commented on how even first time offenders sometimes have to go to prison. “It is traditionally believed that first time offenders don’t go to prison,” said Burch. “However, when the severity of the crime and the strength of the investigation are like what we had in this instance, prison time is absolutely on the table.”

Dees’s sentence will be served in a facility to be determined by the South Carolina Department of Corrections.