Sex offender gets two years in federal prison

A Lamar man has been sentenced to two years in prison for failing to register as a sex offender, U.S. Attorney W. Walter Wilkins said in a press release.

U.S. District Judge R. Bryan Harwell also ordered that 30-year-old Terry Dials’ prison term be followed by three years of supervised release.

Dials pleaded guilty to the crime two months ago and faced a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison.

Dials was convicted in Darlington of committing a lewd act on a minor in 1993. He registered as a sex offender for the first time in March 1997, and last registered as a sex offender in March 2002. He admitted leaving South Carolina in 2005 without notifying authorities, failing to register in Georgia and Ohio where he briefly resided, and failing to register in South Carolina when he returned in February. He was arrested in Lamar by U.S. Marshals in May.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William E. Day II of the Florence office prosecuted the case, which also was investigated by the Darlington County Sheriff’s Office.