Columbia, SC 01/15/2025 (Paul Kirby) – According to the US Attorney’s Office in Columbia, SC, Jake Rupert, 40, of Lexington, was sentenced this week to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to walkaway escape from a federal residential re-entry facility or halfway house.
Evidence obtained in the investigation and presented to the court revealed that on the morning of March 5, 2024, Rupert walked away from a federal halfway house in Columbia without permission of the courts or correctional staff. In January 2024, Rupert was moved to the halfway house from the Federal Bureau of Prisons to finish the last six months of a 96-month custodial sentence he received in 2017. He was in prison for being found guilty on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
On May 27, 2024, deputies with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department located Rupert, a known gang member, inside a residence in Gaston, SC. He was taken into custody and transferred back to the federal prison system to serve the remainder of his original sentence. He was also charged federally with escape.
Senior United States District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie sentenced Rupert to 24 months imprisonment, to be followed by a three-year term of court-ordered supervision. There is no parole in the federal system.
This case was investigated by the United States Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacey D. Haynes prosecuted the case.
