Former Augusta commissioner Sammie Sias’ prison term has been reduced by six months under new federal sentencing guidelines.
The court implemented the reduction for Sias and numerous other defendants last month.
The change is based on new guidelines adopted by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which voted last year to apply the sentencing changes retroactively. It made thousands of federal inmates eligible for immediate release.
The change lowered the sentence minimums for nonviolent offenders with no criminal history, such as Sias, 69.
U.S. District Chief Judge J. Randal Hall sentenced Sias last year to three years in federal custody. Hall also signed off on Sias’ sentence reduction, from 36 to 30 months.
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The former commissioner was convicted in 2022 of destroying thousands of records sought by the FBI in a probe of sales tax spending at Jamestown Community Center by the Sandridge Neighborhood Association, then lying to an FBI agent about the records.
A career soldier, Sias founded and headed the Fort Eisenhower Gate 5-area neighborhood association for more than 20 years.
Sias went to prison in August 2023. He’s incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institute Williamsburg in Walters, S.C.
Under the reduced guidelines, he’ll be eligible for release in January 2026.
