Columbia federal courthouse John Monk jmonk@thestate.com
A former Columbia high school star athlete got 25 years in prison Tuesday for a hate crime-inspired ‘reign of terror’ of stalkings and violent armed robberies against Hispanics.
Michael Knox, 29, who in 2014 made headlines of a different kind when his C.A. Johnson High School basketball team won a state championship. On Tuesday, he was the last of a four-person gang that targeted Hispanics to be sentenced.
In 2021, Knox and his gang carried out at least 15 ambush-type robberies in and around Columbia, crimes marked by the fact that Knox and his accomplices lurked around convenience and grocery stores where Hispanics shopped, then followed their victims to their homes. More Hispanics were likely robbed but didn’t report the crimes, according to law enforcement officials.
Knox and his accomplices, all of whom were African-American, only targeted Hispanics, knowing they were likely to carry cash and also be reluctant to report the crimes, according to evidence in the case. “The defendants targeted their victims because of their victims’ race and national origin,” according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Once in the homes, Knox and his accomplices — all of whom wore masks — terrorized the Hispanics by waving guns in their faces and stealing cash, cellphones and other goods, according to evidence in the case, which was presented Tuesday in court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Garner and summarized by U.S. District Judge Sherri Lydon.
The motive: to get cash so the robbers could gamble and buy drugs, Garner told the judge. In a sentencing memo Garner described the actions of Knox and his accomplices as a “campaign of terror” against Hispanics for weeks on end, Garner said.
In one case, Knox and an accomplice brandished guns at an 8-year-old girl’s parents while the girl cried, “No shoot em,” according to a prosecution memo of the evidence. Hundreds of dollars in cash, victims’ identifying documents, car keys and credit cards were stolen in that incident.
In another case, Knox and accomplices robbed a Hispanic man at gunpoint in the parking lot of his apartment complex, taking $1,800 in cash, his passport, car keys and cellphone. Then they stole his car, a Nissan Maxima.
“The sheer brutality (of these cases) demands a severe sentence,” Lydon said before pronouncing the sentence.
Knox and a co-defendant, Charles Clippard, were the two ringleaders of the conspiracy, according to evidence in the case. Clippard was sentenced by Lydon to 35 years in prison on March 14. Two others involved received lesser sentences in earlier hearings.
Both were sentenced for three hate crime charges involving armed robbery, one count of carjacking, one count of conspiracy and two firearms charges.
“Clippard and Knox egregiously sought to exploit and intimidate their victims based on their Hispanic ethnicity,” said former Special Agent in Charge Steve Jensen of the FBI Columbia Field Office in discussing the case last year. “Their violent robberies instilled fear in their victims and innocent working people within the Hispanic community.”
Knox and Clippard pled guilty last October to federal hate crime charges
The mystery of Knox’s descent into crime
Knox was a star athlete in both football and basketball at C.A. Johnson High School and was on the school state championship basketball team, his attorney Victor Li and a former C.A. Johnson coach, Jerry Jackson, told Judge Lydon at Tuesday’s hearing.
Before passing sentence, Lydon heard statements from six people involved in Knox’s life, including his mother, father and Jackson.
The statements painted a portrait of a youth and young man with every conceivable opportunity — great athletic gifts, mentoring by coaches and others, and a network of supportive friends and family.
The advantages Knox enjoyed and his descent into a life of such “calculated brutality” mystified the judge, who mused in open court, “I have never seen such quality mentoring going on.”
Unlike other criminals who are driven to rob and steal because of desperate circumstances, Knox had athletic talent, a supportive cast of family and friends, a good education and access to stable employment if his athletic aspirations didn’t work out, Lydon said.
“Despite these advantages, you consciously chose to participate in a pattern of violent conduct,” Lydon told Knox.
Lydon also read aloud messages on Knox’s cellphone in which he appeared to take delight in rounding up his accomplices to get ready for a night of stalking, terrorizing and robbing Hispanics.
“This isn’t something you’re being dragged kicking and screaming into,” Lydon said.
Knox’s attorney, Li, said Knox had suffered hardships. First, he didn’t make the football team at Savannah State University, a school at which he hoped to play quarterback and where had a full scholarship. He grew depressed. Then a good friend was murdered. Finally, he became a father.
Knox had believed he was destined for athletic greatness, Li wrote in a sentencing memo. “He had long been viewed as someone destined for greatness—either in professional sports or in another field where his leadership and determination would shine. However, the weight of these expectations became a heavy burden for him.“
Li added Knox “was not a hardened criminal but rather someone who, after a lifetime of success and praise, suddenly found himself directionless, hopeless, and too prideful to ask for help.”
One of the people speaking at Tuesday’s hearing on Knox’s behalf was Jackson, who had coached Knox in football at C.A. Johnson. Knox had been spotted as someone with rare football talent when he was in the seventh grade and was given special attention from there into high school, Jackson said.
“He worked his way to being captain of the football team and ... studied hard with his guidance counselor and made 1125 on his SATs,” Jackson wrote in a letter to the court.
Lydon summed up her position this way: “Many individuals face similar if not greater hardships without resorting to a life of crime.”
How the case was solved
Initial arrests in the case were made by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, which received 911 calls in Spanish and dispatched bilingual deputies to the scenes.
Later the case was transferred to federal authorities, including the FBI.
“Unfortunately, the state doesn’t have a hate crime law so that’s why we had to get the federal government involved,” Lott said, adding stiffer penalties against perpetrators could be gotten under federal hate crime statutes.
The sheriff’s department’s “good investigative techniques” included getting car license numbers from license plate readers and surveillance video and cooperation from Richland County’s Hispanic community, Lott said. In at least one case, the criminals rented a car and detectives were able to get a lead that way.
“We have lots of bilingual deputies,” Lott said. “What these bad guys were relying on was that the Hispanic population would not report the crimes, that they were supposedly fearful of law enforcement and would not report crimes. That’s why they targeted them.”
Lott continued, “We do have a great relationship with our Hispanic community, and they helped us in making sure we stopped these guys.”
Asked if some Hispanics might not have reported the crimes because they were fearful of being deported, Lott said, “We don’t know. We don’t ask a victim what their status is. To us, a victim is a victim — period.”
If law enforcement officers had not arrested the gang, Lott said, “These guys would have gone on and on. They would have never gotten caught.”
The two other gang members have been sentenced.
Sierra Fletcher got 16 and two-thirds years, and Gabriel Brunson got eight years.
JM
The State
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John Monk has covered courts, crime, politics, public corruption, the environment and other issues in the Carolinas for more than 40 years. A U.S. Army veteran who covered the 1989 American invasion of Panama, Monk is a former Washington correspondent for The Charlotte Observer. He has covered numerous death penalty trials, including those of the Charleston church killer, Dylann Roof, serial killer Pee Wee Gaskins and child killer Tim Jones. Monk’s hobbies include hiking, books, languages, music and a lot of other things.