Lexington Co. men sentenced in violent rape and robbery case (Source: Gray News, file) By Jazmine Greene | April 23, 2021 at 5:56 PM EDT - Updated April 23 at 5:56 PM
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Two Lexington County men have been sentenced to several years in prison after being convicted for their role in a violent rape and robbery that occurred in West Columbia.
Christopher Cooper has been sentenced to life in prison. He has been convicted of 1st-degree burglary, kidnapping, armed robbery, 1st-degree criminal sexual conduct, criminal conspiracy, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Craig Cooper has been sentenced to 40 years in prison. He pled guilty 2nd-degree violent burglary, kidnapping, armed robbery, 1st-degree criminal sexual conduct, criminal conspiracy, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Five years before five members of a Baton Rouge-area groundwater commission were charged with conflict-of-interest violations, an attorney for the commission warned of exactly the problem that led to the charges, commission records show.
In mid-2015, former Assistant Attorney General Megan K. Terrell, then the groundwater commission s legal advisor, concluded that state ethics law could bar commissioners from drawing a salary from the big groundwater users they were supposed to regulate, like Baton Rouge Water and ExxonMobil.
The 18-member Capital Area Ground Water Conservation Commission manages the Southern Hills aquifer, the drinking water source for nearly 600,000 people in the Baton Rouge area. The aquifer also supplies industries, farms, cattle ranches and others.