Man convicted in 2021 Halloween night armed robbery, kidnapping near Coastal Carolina University wants conviction tossed
HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A Loris man spending 20 years in prison for armed robbery and kidnapping pleaded guilty based on bad advice from his legal team and also wasn’t aware he could appeal the sentence — making his conviction invalid.
That’s the argument Mije Basnight, whose sentence began July 27, makes in his application for post-conviction relief, filed Wednesday in Horry County Common Pleas Court.
Basnight was 16 when he and Ja’Real Warren, 19, were involved in a Halloween night attack in 2021 near the Cove Apartments along Highway 544.
According to arrest warrants for Warren obtained by News13, Warren allegedly approached the woman with a pistol and took her phone while she was in her vehicle. He then shoved her into the back of the car at gunpoint, choked her, hit her with the gun while threatening to kill her, and sexually assaulted her.
The warrants also say that Warren and Basnight also hit the woman with the rear of her car causing her to land on the trunk lid. Then, while she was still on the back of the vehicle, they allegedly drove the car on Highway 544 at a high rate of speed while “conducting evasive maneuvers” and “striking curbs” until she was thrown off the vehicle.
Prosecutors tried Basnight as an adult. Warren, who was 19 when the crime happened, pleaded guilty last May and got a 30-year sentence.
Under violent offender statutes, Basnight is required to serve at least 85% of his time. He’s incarcerated at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville. Basnight’s application claims his plea was “not voluntary.”
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Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here.
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