Jury set to get Pinson Trial Monday

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — It took more than five hours to get through closing arguments in the Jonathan Pinson corruption trial Friday. Prosecutors says the former South Carolina State Trustee and his enterprise – co-defendant Eric Robinson, Lance Wright, Tony Williams, Phil Mims and Richard Zahn entered into an agreement to enrich said enterprise. However, prosecutors say, the enterprise was more concerned with “lining their pockets” than anything else. Alleged deals include a plant in Marion County. In that deal, prosecutors say part of the group sat at a restaurant and agreed to make fraudulent invoices, calling it “racketeering at its best.” For that alone, evidence shows Mims was paid $5,000, Williams and Wright $10,000 each and Pinson himself $9,500. Other deals include the Village at River’s Edge project where prosecutors claim over $245,000 was given to Pinson’s company to build low- income houses. However, prosecutors allege, Pinson spent the money on other things like meals and cars. When it comes to dealings with South Carolina State University, prosecutors say Pinson and Robinson conspired to take kickbcks from a Homecoming concert and Pinson pushed the university to buy land in order to get a Porsche. Pinson’s side, however, claims Pinson himself isn’t an enterprise. That, while Pinson was a SC State trustee, he was not a public official and that he was only trying to make money and that is not a crime. The jury is set to start deliberations on Monday. Stay with ABC Columbia News for the latest on this story.