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| Former S.C. County Sheriff Dies in Federal Prison |
| By Florence Morning News |
| Published: 10/30/2002 |
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Theodore 'Big Mac' McFarlin, Williamsburg County's first black sheriff and the first black sheriff in South Carolina since Reconstruction, died Tuesday in federal prison. He was 70. McFarlin was convicted of drug conspiracy and perjury charges Feb. 20, 1998, following a three-day trial. The charges -- one count of participating in a crack and cocaine conspiracy and two counts of perjury -- arose from his relationship with convicted drug dealer Thomas Lee 'TY' Williams. On Aug. 27, 1998, Judge Cameron McGowan Currie sentenced McFarlin to 292 months -- more than 24 years -- in prison, the minimum possible sentence under federal sentencing guidelines. He also received 60 months in prison for each of the perjury charges to run concurrent to his 292-month sentence, Currie said, because of his poor health. McFarlin suffered from many serious heart-related ailments, as well as diabetes and obesity, and required a portable oxygen supply. He died as a result of these medical conditions at Devens (Mass.) Federal Medical Center. The former sheriff maintained his innocence to his death. McFarlin served 16 years in office, ending in 1992. Key witnesses in McFarlin's federal trial included both current and former deputies of the sheriff's department and many convicted drug dealers who witnessed or were aware of his role in the drug conspiracy involving Williams, a Kingstree native. McFarlin testified on Williams' behalf when he was tried in federal court in 1995, but a jury found Williams guilty of drug conspiracy and possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute. Currie sentenced him to more than 27 years in prison Dec. 14, 1995. Williams was a suspected drug dealer who fired on McFarlin's deputies when they tried to arrest him after a controlled undercover drug buy in September 1990. Wary of the relationship between the sheriff and the suspect, deputies conducted the operation without McFarlin's knowledge or consent. No one was hurt in the shooting, and Williams was arrested within 10 minutes. Williams' partner, 45-year-old Clarence Edward Cyrus of Hemingway, trafficked drugs with McFarlin's blessing, according to court testimony. Cyrus continued to traffic in drugs following not only the arrest and conviction of Williams, but also of many of his cocaine sources in Miami. He was arrested in 1999 as a result of a lengthy investigation involving many undercover controlled drug buys made directly from Cyrus. Cyrus pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and one count of distribution of crack cocaine April 24, 2001. After a day-long hearing in August 2001 with evidence that proved Cyrus was a major cocaine trafficker since the early 1980s, Currie sentenced him to life in prison. There is no parole in the federal judicial system. |
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