Ex-fugitive sentenced for abusing daughter
October 22, 2024
The Honorable Robert E. Hood sentenced Nathan Ginter to 40 years in the South Carolina Department of Corrections. On June 12, a Richland County jury found Ginter, 43, guilty of physically abusing his then three-year-old daughter, resulting in four counts of unlawful conduct toward a child. Judge Hood presided over the June trial. After Ginter failed to appear, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest, and the court sealed his sentence until his apprehension.
The Scott County Sheriff’s Office in Georgetown, Kentucky, arrested Ginter on June 22. On October 10, authorities extradited him to South Carolina.
Over the three-day trial, the jury heard testimony that between January and March 2022, Ginter abused his daughter as a form of punishment, which then escalated to torture. The defendant caned the child with a bamboo stick, resulting in bruises on her body, bathed and showered her in cold water in the form of waterboarding, and used a drive-stun gun on her buttocks over several weeks, leaving second-degree burns. The victim’s grandfather and the child’s aunt noticed the burns and reported the incident to law enforcement.
During the investigation, digital forensics was used to extract information from the phones of the child’s mother and the defendant, yielding numerous text messages and images documenting the abuse over three months. Video evidence showed the defendant narrating his actions while waterboarding the child.
The victim’s nine-year-old sister witnessed the abuse and testified in court about what her sister endured.
The Fifth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office, represented by Assistant Solicitors Anna Browder, Gabrielle Sharp, and First Assistant Solicitor Kathryn Cavanaugh, prosecuted the case. The investigation was a joint effort between the City of Columbia Police Department, the Town of Lexington Police Department, and the United States Secret Service.