Columbia Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Civil Rights Crime

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Jonathan Andrew Felkel, 34, of Columbia, has pleaded guilty to violating the housing rights of his black neighbor, J.M.

According to court documents, on July 17, 2025, Felkel was driving into the gated community where both he and J.M. lived when he saw J.M. standing at the gate of the community. Felkel fired a gun into the air and shouted at J.M., an African American man, "You better run, boy!" The defendant later admitted to law enforcement that, in firing his gun and shouting at J.M., he intended to scare J.M., he had hoped to convey to J.M. "leave [the neighborhood], get from around here," and that J.M. "[didn't] need to be around this area." Felkel expressed his belief, in part, that because J.M. was black, he must be connected to "dangerous criminals."

Felkel faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and a term of supervised release to follow any term of imprisonment. United States District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis accepted the guilty plea and will sentence Felkel on a future date.

The FBI Columbia Field Office and the Richland County Sheriff's Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elle Klein and Lamar Fyall of the District of South Carolina and Trial Attorney Sarah Armstrong of the Civil Rights Division's Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.

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