South Carolina – A South Carolina man has agreed to plead guilty in federal court after being accused of using a firearm and racial threats against his Black neighbor in what prosecutors describe as a violation of federal housing rights law.
Jonathan Andrew Felkel, 34, was indicted by a federal grand jury in December 2025 following an incident that unfolded months earlier inside the gated community where he lived. According to court records filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the confrontation took place on July 17, 2025.
The Department of Justice in a press release said that Felkel was driving into the neighborhood when he saw his neighbor, identified in court documents as J.M., standing at the community gate. At that point, prosecutors allege, Felkel fired a gun and yelled, “You better keep running, boy!” at J.M. The language and actions described in the indictment form the basis of the federal charge now pending against him.
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Felkel has agreed to plead guilty to violating a federal law that makes it a crime to use force or the threat of force to injure, intimidate or interfere with a person’s housing rights because of race. The law is designed to protect individuals from being driven from their homes, harassed, or threatened in connection with where they live.
If convicted, Felkel faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The charge also carries a potential fine of up to $250,000, as well as a term of supervised release that would follow any period of incarceration. He is expected to formally enter his change of plea before United States District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis at a future hearing in federal court.
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The case was investigated by the FBI’s Columbia Field Office in coordination with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elle Klein and Lamar Fyall of the District of South Carolina, along with Trial Attorney Sarah Armstrong of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section at the U.S. Department of Justice.
The federal indictment came after local attention had already focused on the case. Felkel was the first person charged under Richland County’s hate crime ordinance. He has now agreed to resolve the matter through a federal guilty plea instead.
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Federal prosecutors have emphasized that the charge centers on the protection of housing rights and the prohibition against racially motivated intimidation. The upcoming plea hearing will mark the next formal step in a case that began with a single encounter at a neighborhood gate and now stands as a federal civil rights prosecution.
The case was initially investigated by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department before federal authorities became involved.
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“An individual had a gun and shot at someone solely based on the race of the victim,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said during a July press conference, announcing Felkel’s arrest.
