Hinson sentenced to 25 years in underground bunker case

FLORENCE — A Hartsville man once accused of holding two girls in an underground bunker in Darlington County has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison after a lengthy hearing punctuated by his outbursts.

In addition to the 300-month sentence handed down Friday, 49-year-old Kenneth Glenn Hinson also received five years of probation.

It took the jury about five minutes Nov. 8 to convict Hinson of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced late Friday afternoon after a six-hour hearing.

The sentence followed the emotional testimony of four women who said they were sexually assaulted by Hinson.

One of Hinson’s nieces told U.S. District Court Judge Terry L. Wooten, who presided over the hearing, that Hinson had raped her when she was just 23 months old and molested her again when she was 11.

Hinson was convicted of criminal sexual conduct in 1991 after he molested an 11-year-old girl. That victim also appeared in court to face Hinson on Friday.

The victim told Wooten that Hinson was supposed to be driving her to school that day, but instead drove into a wooded area, pulled her into the back of his van and raped her at knifepoint. The attack happened just two days before her birthday.

“I said everything I could to get him to stop. I said, ‘I love you. You’re hurting me, please stop,’” she said.

After the sentence was handed down, Hinson’s niece said she feels her children and grandchild are safe now.

“The skies have opened up, and there’s a rainbow now,” she said. “It’s our justice, even though it is a gun charge.”

Hinson’s niece said she testified during the sentencing hearing to protect her family from Hinson.

“I’ve got to protect my grandbaby,” she said. “I’m fine with 25 years. At least my children will be grown when he gets out. This has been two years of hell.”

Hinson’s niece said she was present at the state trial when Hinson was acquitted on charges that he kidnapped two 17-year-old girls on March 13, 2006, and held them in a 5-by-8-foot room beneath a trapdoor in the floor of a shed in his yard.

Hinson faced two counts each of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, assault and battery with intent to kill, and kidnapping. He faced life in prison if he was convicted of any of the six charges, but a jury found him not guilty in August 2007.

Federal public defender Mike Meetze, who represented Hinson in the federal case, objected to the women being allowed to testify.

“Felony possession of a firearm is a victimless crime,” Meetze said. “Anyone who speaks on an unproven allegation ... is just trying to get an increased sentence.”

Wooten ruled to allow the testimony because it is legal for a judge to take a defendant’s criminal record and the characteristics of his or her life into consideration before imposing a sentence.

Moments later, as Meetze was addressing the court, Hinson ordered his attorney to “sit down” and said he was “done” with the hearing.

“You’re going to do what you want to do,” Hinson shouted at Wooten. “ ... I’ve been made to look like a monster because a bunch of crackheads set me up! It makes no difference what the sentence is!”

Wooten told Hinson he didn’t run the courtroom. Hinson responded that Wooten was right because it seemed as if Assistant U.S. Attorney Rose Mary Parham, who prosecuted the case, was running the court.

Hinson moved to have Meetze removed from the case as his attorney earlier because, Hinson said, he hadn’t seen Meetze in more than two months.

That motion to dismiss was denied by Wooten.

A motion by the prosecution to have Hinson deemed an armed career criminal, which can be anyone with three prior drug or violent felony convictions, was granted by Wooten during the hearing.

Because Hinson is considered an armed career criminal, he would receive a 15 years to life sentence instead of the 10-year maximum sentence mandated by a felon in possession of a firearm conviction, Parham said.

Hinson admitted to possessing the gun both in federal and circuit court, Meetze said in an earlier statement.

Wooten ruled in November that Parham could mention that Hinson had been convicted of a felony, but couldn’t mention that he had been convicted of criminal sexual conduct with an 11-year-old in 1991. Hinson was released from prison in 2000 because of good behavior and work credits.

Parham also was prohibited from mentioning Hinson’s state trial and acquittal.

Hinson was arrested after a four-day manhunt that attracted national media attention, authorities arrested Hinson about a mile from his northern Darlington County home. Hinson had been standing in the backyard of a relative’s home asking for water when the relative called 911.

Hinson was sentenced in 1989 to three years in prison after he was convicted of trafficking cocaine. He also was sentenced in 1983 to 1½ years in prison for his conviction in the aggravated assault of a man with a car jack.