Background: The Beaufort County Government Center in Beaufort, S.C. (Google Maps). Inset: Krystal Heyward (Beaufort County Sheriff's Office).
A South Carolina woman will avoid jail after pleading guilty to breaking into her ex-boyfriend's house.
Krystal Heyward, 30, entered a guilty plea to a count of burglary on May 6 in connection with a 2024 incident at her ex-boyfriend's house in Hilton Head, South Carolina. According to court documents obtained by local news outlet The Island Packet, Heyward broke into her ex's house during the early morning hours of Sept. 21, 2024, by taking out an air conditioning unit in a window on the house's patio.
When police arrived, Heyward admitted that she was there to "blow up the house."
According to The Island Packet, Heyward not only copped to her violent plans when police found her, she also removed two containers from a backpack she was carrying. One item was a bottle of bleach "that appeared to be highly pressurized." The other item was a "sauce jar" that appeared to be one component in an intended Molotov cocktail. Heyward also had a cloth soaked in chemicals, several lighters, and a knife.
The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office later determined that nothing Heyward was carrying when they found her could have caused an explosion. But because Heyward's intent was to cause an explosion, she was initially charged with first-degree burglary and possession of a destructive device.
The ex-boyfriend's mother told police that her son and Heyward broke up a few weeks prior to the break-in.
On May 6, Heyward pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree burglary; the destructive device charge was dismissed as part of her plea. She was sentenced to 18 months of probation and was ordered to undergo counseling for mental health and substance abuse. She was also given a five-year suspended prison sentence and a permanent restraining order against her ex-boyfriend.
Comments