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Press Release

South Carolina Man Convicted Of Robbing A Mount Pleasant Restaurant At Gunpoint Is Sentenced To 50 Years In Prison

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of North Carolina
The Robber Shot and Seriously Injured A Restaurant Employee

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Brandon Lloyd Daniels, 31, of North Charleston, South Carolina, was sentenced today to 50 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for the 2018 armed robbery of the Tavern and Table restaurant in Mount Pleasant, S.C., announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks presided over the sentencing hearing.

Bennie Mims, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in North Carolina and South Carolina, and Chief Mark Arnold of the Mount Pleasant Police Department join U.S. Attorney King in making today’s announcement.

According to filed court documents, evidence presented at trial, and witness testimony, on the evening of April 4, 2018, officers with the Mount Pleasant Police Department responded to reports of a robbery and shooting at the Tavern and Table restaurant, located at 100 Church Street in Mount Pleasant. Trial evidence established that around 11:30 p.m., shortly after the restaurant closed for the evening, Daniels entered the restaurant through the back door wearing a face covering and went into the restaurant’s office, where several employees were gathered. Daniels pointed his firearm at the employees and demanded money. According to trial evidence, Daniels aimed his firearm at the restaurant’s assistant manager and shot him in the lower back. The victim sustained serious, permanent injuries from the gunshot. 

Following the shooting, the employees complied with Daniels’ demands and handed him several of the restaurant’s cash drawers. As Daniels fled the scene, he fired two more shots inside the restaurant in the direction of another employee.

In July 2022, a federal jury convicted Daniels of Hobbs Act robbery, discharging a firearm during and in relation to the robbery, and felon in possession of ammunition.

In October 2021, following a bench trial before Judge Hendricks, Daniels was convicted of possession of a sawed-off shotgun and possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon. The convictions stemmed from investigators’ discovery of a sawed-off shotgun in Daniels’ bedroom during the execution of a search warrant in connection with the Tavern and Table robbery.

Daniels is in federal custody. He will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.

In announcing today’s sentence, Judge Hendricks described the shooting as “vicious,” and said that “This offense involved a tragic robbery, shooting, and maiming of an innocent man tantamount to attempted murder.” She also noted that “it is a miracle the victim did not die,” and that the “amount of physical damage to the victim is unparalleled.”

U.S. Attorney King commended the ATF and the Mount Pleasant Police Department for their investigation of the case and thanked the FBI for their substantial assistance.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Taylor Stout, Regina Pack, and Erik Lindahl, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina in Charlotte, prosecuted the case.

Updated April 20, 2023

Topic
Violent Crime