Columbia man with decades-long criminal record going to prison, prosecutor says
A Columbia man who was convicted on gun and drug charges stemming from an attack on a 65-year-old woman at a laundromat was sentenced to a decade behind bars, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Thursday.
In April, 39-year-old Eric Jahann Nixon was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and possession of crack cocaine. His sentence was delivered this week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Nixon has been convicted of several crimes in the past, court records show. But he was found not guilty of murder following a high-profile 2017 shooting at a Columbia Waffle House.
On Oct. 16, 2020, Nixon was taken into custody after the Columbia Police Department received multiple 911 calls about a man with a gun assaulting a 65-year-old female attendant at Wash City Laundromat, according to the release. That’s off Broad River Road, about half a mile from the intersection with Bush River Road.
During a search of Nixon, officers found a loaded Hi-Point .380 caliber handgun in his waistband in addition to a pill bottle containing a baggie of 3 grams of crack cocaine and a razor blade, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Surveillance video from the laundromat confirmed that Nixon was the man who pulled a handgun from his waistband and assaulted the attendant, then pointed the firearm at others in the parking lot, according to the release.
Nixon is prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition under federal law based upon prior state and federal convictions.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Nixon’s prior convictions include: possession of a stolen motor vehicle (1998, Lexington County), conspiracy to commit money laundering (2005, federal conviction in Columbia), assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature (2005, Lexington County), throwing bodily fluid on correctional officer (2005, Lexington County), indecent exposure to adult (2010, federal conviction in West Virginia), forgery (2013, Lexington County), distribution of crack cocaine near a school (2016, Richland County), and unlawful carrying of a firearm (2018, Richland County) — which was related to the Waffle House shooting.
During sentencing, in addition to hearing a summary of Nixon’s prior criminal history since he was 12 years old, the court was presented evidence showing that, since being in custody on these charges, Nixon had accumulated dozens of disciplinary violations at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, according to the release. The offenses included possessing a handmade weapon and threatening correctional officers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Prosecutors cited an incident when Nixon told a female correctional officer, “When you write me up, I’m going to know your whole name. I will shoot your head off, blow your brains out. I will have your whole family dead by tonight, you better ask about me. ... I’m important.”
On another occasion, the U.S. Attorney’s office said Nixon told a correctional officer that he has beat all his cases and that he will beat this one. He then threatened to find her and shoot her and her children.
Nixon’s disciplinary violations from a previous incarceration in federal prison on a separate conviction were also presented into evidence, according to the release.
Senior U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie sentenced Nixon to the maximum of 10 years in prison on the firearm charge, and the maximum of 2 years on the possession of crack cocaine charge, with those sentences to be served concurrently, meaning both sentences are served at the same time the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Once Nixon is released from prison, he will be on federal supervised release for 3 years, according to the release. There is no parole in the federal system.
When delivering the sentence, Currie said Nixon had a “significant criminal history” and his conduct has been “out of control and inappropriate” in prison, the local detention center, and in the courtroom.
In addition to Columbia police, the case was investigated by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
