RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. — The son of a man accused of shooting seven South Carolina enforcement officers and killing two has been sentenced for a sex crime involving an underage girl.
Seth David Hopkins plead guilty Monday morning to a charge of criminal sexual conduct with a minor second degree. The judge then immediately gave him a 20-year prison sentence, but he will get credit for the time he's already spent behind bars since his arrest.
In addition to the sentence, once he's released, he'll have GPS monitoring for the rest of his life and will register as a sex offender.
Before sentencing, Seth Hopkins was asked by the judge if he wanted to say anything in court, but replied, "no sir."
Seth’s father, Fred Hopkins, is accused of shooting seven law enforcement officers in Florence in October of 2018 as they attempted to serve a search warrant on Seth.
Florence County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Farrah Turner and Florence Police Department Sergeant Terrance Carraway died from their injuries from that shooting.
A representative of the Florence County Sheriff's office was at Seth Hopkins' plea Monday, and said the Seth Hopkins case was being investigated by Turner. He said he wanted to make sure that her final case got justice.
FCSO Investigator Sarah Miller, FCSO Deputy Arie Davis, Florence police officer Brian Hart, Florence police officer Travis Scott, and Florence police officer Scott Williamson were also wounded in the shooting.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department is leading the investigation, rather than SLED which is normally called in for officer-involved shootings. Now-suspended Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone called Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott from the scene at the time to assist.
Although the details of why SLED was not called have not been laid out, Sheriff Lott told media outlets previously “we were called in because we have a major crime investigative team that has a lot of experience in investigating cases like this.”
In April, it was announced that Fred would have to undergo a mental evaluation following a request from the solicitor. Fred Hopkins is awaiting trial and is currently being held at the Richland County jail.
