On August 13, 2012, in Greenwood County, South Carolina, John Lester Hart Jr. came home from work to find his home had been burglarized. The doors to his son’s vehicle and the residence had been left open, and the storage room in the garage had been forcibly opened. When Deputy Travis Cox and Sergeant Dale Boyer of the Greenwood County Sheriff's Office arrived on scene, Hart reported that guns had been taken from a metal storage cabinet in the spare bedroom. He provided the sheriffs with the guns’ serial numbers. The thieves had also taken jewelry, pocketbooks, a gold coin collection, and money. The value of the stolen items exceeded $10,000, and the cost to repair the doors was approximately $2,100.
When canvassing the scene, deputies identified shoe prints on both the driveway and front door. They also collected two shotgun barrels belonging to Hart, a hammer, and a crowbar believed to have been used in the break-in. None of this evidence could be linked to any perpetrators.
On August 27, 2012, Captain Chip Davenport responded to an anonymous call claiming stolen firearms had been located inside and underneath apartment 120-B of a building on Taggart Avenue in the city of Greenwood. When a search was conducted, the police found two rifles, including a .308. A National Crime Information Center check later revealed that the serial numbers on the rifles were the same as those given by Hart. Police asked to search apartment 120-A, where 35-year-old Edward Dean lived with his mother. Dean was not present, but his mother consented to the search. While no guns were found in apartment A, law enforcement found .308 and .44 ammunition, which were the same calibers as the rifles stolen from Hart. The caller was later identified as Dean’s cousin, Christi Lopez.
On August 31, 2012, the police arrested Adrian Gaston, Antwine Anderson, and two unnamed juveniles for a string of seven burglaries and attempted burglaries between August 12, 2012, and August 31, 2012. On September 5, 2012, during an interrogation about these burglaries by Sergeant Boyer, Gaston, although not a suspect in the burglary of Hart’s residence, implicated himself, Anderson, and Dean in that crime. Boyer would later say that “[i]f Mr. Gaston hadn’t made his statement,” investigators would not “have arrested anyone for the burglary.” Gaston said he acted as a lookout while Dean and Anderson, who was the driver, burglarized Hart’s home. Gaston said Dean “stripped the lock off the storage room door with his hand,” and that he, Anderson, and Dean took guns from the storage room and the storage building on Hart’s property. Gaston said they took about nine or ten guns from Hart’s home and returned to Anderson’s house to divide them amongst themselves. After dropping Dean back off at his home, Gaston said they watched Dean put the guns under his apartment.
Although it is unknown what happened to the two unnamed juveniles, on September 12, 2012, Gaston, Anderson, and Dean were charged with first-degree burglary, grand larceny, and malicious injury to real property for the burglary of Hart’s home. In total, Gaston was charged with two first-degree burglaries and thirteen non-burglary offenses. The charges stated that Gaston’s crime spree had begun on August 12, 2012, with the burglary of Hart’s home. Over the next two-and-a-half weeks, between August 17 and August 31, Gaston, Anderson, and the two juveniles committed and attempted six more burglaries in Greenwood County with the last one having occurred on August 31, 2012. They were charged with four cases of second-degree burglary, two charges of attempted second-degree burglary, three cases of petit larceny, one charge of grand larceny, two charges of malicious injury to real property, and one charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for these burglaries.
On September 4, 2012, law enforcement obtained an arrest warrant for Dean for possession of stolen goods less than $2,000. On September 11, 2012, arrest warrants for first-degree burglary, grand larceny over $10,000, and malicious injury to real property less than $2,000 were also obtained for Dean. He was served with the four warrants on September 12, 2012. On January 22, 2013, a Greenwood County grand jury indicted Dean for first-degree burglary, larceny more than $2,000, malicious injury to real property, and possession of stolen goods. Dean was not charged with any of the crimes attributed to Gaston and his associates between August 17 and August 31, 2012.
Not long after Gaston’s arrest, he began to cooperate with law enforcement and the Solicitor’s Office in Greenwood County. Gaston was released on a personal recognizance bond, after which his crime spree appeared to continue.
Gaston was charged with second-degree burglary and petit larceny for a burglary in Greenwood that was committed on May 17, 2013. He was also charged with first-degree burglary, petit larceny, and malicious injury to real property for a separate crime that was committed on May 21, 2013. According to court records, it was undisputed that Dean was not involved in any of the crimes attributed to Gaston in May 2013.
Within days of his arrest, Dean had filed motions requesting the state to divulge any offers made to Gaston.
More than a year later, on December 11, 2013, a pretrial hearing was held, and Dean moved to dismiss his charges because the prosecutor had failed to comply with his motions for disclosure. During the hearing, Judge Frank Addy asked Eighth Circuit Assistant Solicitor Shannon Odom, “Has the State made any assurance to Mr. Gaston with regard to [his] other cases in return for his testimony in this case?” Odom answered, “No.” Judge Addy then asked, “So they’re [sic] no deals whatsoever?” Odom assured Judge Addy, “No deals.” Dean’s counsel Charles Grose said the defense had “a hard time believing” these assurances. However, the State still said no deals had been made with Gaston.
Dean’s disclosure motion was denied on January 7, 2014, and he moved for reconsideration on January 14, 2014. On January 22, 2014, Judge Addy wrote “that the State shall be under a continuing duty to disclose any promises, agreements, deals or arrangements made with any of the State’s witnesses.”
The case went to trial on January 27, 2014, but it was postponed due to inclement weather. Dean submitted a pre-trial brief to renew his motion requesting the State to detail any agreements that had been made with Gaston in exchange for his testimony. Another judge, Doyet Early, reminded the Solicitor’s Office that they had an ongoing obligation to report any deals made with Gaston. Dean also submitted a copy of his pre-trial brief to Judge Addy when the trial recommenced.
Dean’s trial began on March 3, 2014, in the Greenwood County Court of General Sessions, presided over by Judge Addy. The evidence custodian, Wesley Love, testified that there weren’t any prints on the hammer or crowbar from the scene. Officer Cox testified that the source of the shoe prints on the property were never identified. Gaston testified that Dean participated in the burglary of Hart’s home, which he said had occurred on August 12, 2012. According to Gaston, Dean hid some of Hart’s guns underneath Dean’s apartment.
Odom asked Gaston, “Have I promised you anything?” Gaston replied, “No ma’am.” She then asked, “Have I promised to help you out if you'll testify.” Gaston replied, “No, ma’am.”
Additionally, Gaston testified that “he would plead guilty and face the possibility of two life sentences without the possibility of parole plus over 93 years, and that he did not plan to enter into any plea negotiations with the prosecutor.”
On March 5, 2014, a jury convicted Dean of first-degree burglary, larceny over $2,000, and malicious injury to real property for his participation in the Hart burglary. Judge Addy deferred Dean’s sentencing until June 9, 2014, intending to postpone it until after Gaston’s trial finished. Judge Addy took jurisdiction over both Gaston’s and Anderson’s trials, in order to make sure that there would be no deals that could compromise the integrity of the cases.
At Dean’s sentencing hearing on June 9, 2014, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for first-degree burglary, 10 years for larceny more than $2,000, and 10 years for malicious injury to real property, running concurrently. Judge Addy reminded the parties he had retained jurisdiction over Gaston’s and Anderson’s cases.
On June 18, 2014, Dean moved for a new trial and a reconsideration of the sentence based on a statement made by Anderson saying he had never committed any crimes with Dean.
On February 2, 2015, Anderson pled guilty to six counts of nonviolent second-degree burglary before Judge Addy, who sentenced Anderson to 10 years in prison.
On May 14, 2015, Gaston’s plea and sentencing hearing was moved from Greenwood County to Saluda County after he waived venue. It was presided over by Judge Thomas Russo from the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. During the sentencing presentation, Gaston’s attorney, Stephen Geoly, argued that Anderson was the “ringleader” and the older “mastermind” and that Gaston was simply “along for the ride.” He argued that Gaston had a low IQ and was “not the sharpest crayon in the box.” Geoly also argued that Gaston, having been 20 years old at the time, only committed the burglaries in order to provide for his children and did not have a criminal record prior to the burglaries.
Gaston pled guilty to seven counts of nonviolent second-degree burglary and two counts of nonviolent attempted burglary charges. His 14 additional Greenwood County charges were dismissed as part of his guilty plea. He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, suspended on the service of 128 days, with credit for 128 days, and five years probation, which could terminate after two years. If Gaston had pled guilty to all of his initial charges, he would have faced a minimum of 15 years in prison or up to two sentences of life without parole, plus 93 years and 300 days.
At the hearing, prosecutor C. Lance Sheek said, “[T]he understanding with Mr. Geoly was we would certainly convey to the Court if he cooperated in the trials but other than that there were no deals made beforehand.”
On June 9, 2015, Dean filed a motion for a new trial based on new evidence due to the results of Gaston’s plea. He requested the transcript of Gaston’s sentencing hearing. Judge Russo supplied the transcript, adding “[N]o one ever informed me that Judge Addy retained jurisdiction over Mr. Gaston’s case. It was just presented at [ sic ] a guilty plea out of Greenwood in conjunction with charges out of Saluda. Obviously, had I known that Judge Addy had retained jurisdiction, I never would have taken the plea. I would be very interested to know if the lawyers got together and did an ‘end run’ judge shopping move. I would be extremely irritated if that were the case and would like to know so I could take appropriate action.” Dean supplemented his motion with the relevant transcripts on April 6, 2016.
In an email response to Judge Russo, Solicitor David Stumbo wrote, “[N]either Mrs. Odom nor anyone else in our office has extended a plea offer to Gaston in exchange for his testimony. She stated on the record as an officer of the court that Mr. Gaston was told that his cooperation would be considered and taken into account when his charges were dealt with at a later date.”
On April 13, 2016, a hearing was held on Dean’s motion for a new trial. Dean argued that there had been inconsistent statements regarding deals with Gaston. Agreeing that the deal with Gaston had compromised the integrity of Dean’s conviction, Judge Addy granted Dean a new trial on May 4, 2016.
On May 10, 2016, the state filed a notice of intent to appeal, and on May 16, 2016, Dean filed a notice of intent to cross appeal. On the same day, Dean also moved to dismiss the state's appeal because the grant of a new trial motion was not appealable. Dean was released from prison on July 1, 2016,
On May 8, 2019, the South Carolina Court of Appeals dismissed the State’s appeal regarding Dean’s new trial. The appellate court stated that both Judges Addy and Russo “expressed great concern for the appearance of ‘judge shopping’ in this case.” The appeals court said it “share[d] this concern.…Protecting the integrity of our judicial system is fundamental to administering justice. The trial court committed no error of law in granting a new trial.”
More than six years later, on December 10, 2025, the court dismissed Dean’s charges.
– Valora Cirillo-Rodriguez, Jose Gaytan Espino, Elyse Gabriella Cordero, Lindsay Rose Hedges, and Natalie Liselle Madrigal
Posting Date: 07-07-2026
