Four local men face life in prison, including one who committed aggravated sexual battery against an unconscious woman in a hospital room, after a busy week at the Augusta Judicial Center.
Another defendant was found guilty of breaking into an Augusta hotel room and committing aggravated sexual battery against two female soldiers. Two more were found guilty of murder.
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A Richmond County jury found William Howard Hayes, 66, of Beech Island, guilty of aggravated sexual battery against the hospital victim on May 1 after a two-day trial.
Richmond County Judge John Flythe sentenced Hayes to life with the possibility of parole, making him eligible for release when he is 96 years old.
According to court records, the victim is suing Hayes and the University System Board of Regents for giving Hayes a visitor’s pass to AU Medical Center and allowing Hayes in her room unsupervised, where she was intubated and restrained. A nurse observed Hayes completing the 2019 assault, but security staff did not immediately detain him, according to the complaint.
A jury found Darren Shamell Grant, 39, guilty of burglary, rape, aggravated sexual battery, sexual battery and sodomy in a 2022 double rape of two soldiers who were unconscious after a party at a west Augusta hotel.
According to court records, Grant, an Army corporal, told police he’d been drunk and did not remember what happened. But they found video of him making a key card to enter the victims’ room and he showed no sign of being intoxicated.
Richmond County Judge Ashley Wright sentenced Grant to 45 years in prison plus life.
Augusta Circuit District Attorney Jared Williams commented on the multiple convictions at a Tuesday political forum, after his May 21 primary opponent, career prosecutor Amber Brantley, voiced concerns she said victims have about justice being served.
“To the extent that we say victims aren’t being served, I think we’re looking at the wrong community,” Williams said.
Ike Detreal Lang, 20, pleaded guilty to malice murder, felony murder, possession of a firearm while committing a felony and eight other charges for the promise of parole one day. He and two other men were charged with the June 2023 murder of Jordan Gaynor, an eighth-grader, outside a convenience store.
A jury also found Jaquavious Lindreas Taylor, guilty of felony murder. Taylor was 15 when he was accused of killing DeAngelo Burns, 17, to collect a bounty.
Burns’ parents have sued the sheriff’s office after two responding deputies, Nicholas Nunes and Brandon Keathley, got in an altercation while rendering aid to him.
