Lexington, SC 12/18/2024 (Paul Kirby) – According to information released by Eleventh Circuit Solicitor Rick Hubbard, a 28-year-old Lexington County man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for serious property crimes including burglary and possession of a stolen vehicle. On December 4, 2024, Christopher Azra Dalne Adkins pled guilty to Burglary 2nd Degree - Violent, Burglary 3rd Degree, Possession of a Stolen Vehicle with a value of $10,000 or more, and Failure to Stop for Blue Lights, 2nd Offense. After accepting the plea, Circuit Court Judge William Keesley sentenced Adkins to 25 years in the South Carolina Department of Corrections. He received the maximum sentence of 15 years for the Burglary 2nd Degree Violent charge and 10 years for the Possession of a Stolen Vehicle with a value of $10,000 or more. The judge ordered the sentences to run consecutively. The remainder of his sentences will run concurrent to his burglary sentence. Under South Carolina law, Burglary 2nd Degree, Violent, is a violent and serious offense.
According to information presented before the plea, on September 17, 2023, a Cayce Department of Public Safety officer initiated a traffic stop on a stolen vehicle being driven by Adkins. Instead of pulling over and coming to a stop, Adkins sped away leading law enforcement officers on a 34-mile-long high-speed chase. At times, the fleeing car and pursuing officers reached speeds of 100 mph. Adkins’ vehicle was eventually disabled using a “stop stick,” tire deflation device. Only when he could no longer run in the car did Adkins give up. Officers quickly took him into custody. He was processed, questioned, and eventually transported to Lexington where he was booked into the Lexington County Detention Center (LCDC) where he faced the first of many hearings he has had over the past year.
In addition to the Failure to Stop for Blue Lights charge, Adkins pled guilty to a series of storage unit burglaries that occurred in September and October of 2023. In one of these instances, Adkins burglarized a storage unit that contained over 50 firearms, ranging from antique collectables to suppressed assault rifles.
At the time of these offenses, Adkins was on probation. He also has multiple prior convictions, that include Distribution of Methamphetamine, Possession of a Stolen Vehicle, and Failure to Stop for Blue Lights. Adkins has been transported to the South Carolina Department of Corrections to begin serving his sentence.
