Columbia Men Arrested on Criminal Solicitation of a Minor and Related Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Joseph Daniel Garcia, 31, of Columbia, S.C., and Micka White, 28, of Columbia, S.C. on four total charges connected to the attempted sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Goose Creek Police Department and Mount Pleasant Police Department made the arrests in these unrelated cases. Investigators with the Richland County Sheriff's Department, Monks Corner Police Department, and U.S. Marshals Service, all also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with these investigations. 

Investigators state White solicited a person he believed to be a minor for sex and Garcia encouraged a person he believed to be a minor to produce child sexual abuse material.

White was arrested on July 24, 2023. He is charged with three counts of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

Garcia was arrested on July 22, 2023. He is charged with one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment.

These cases will be prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office.

Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.

* Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes. "Pornography" can imply the child was a consenting participant.  Globally, the term child pornography is being replaced by CSAM for this reason.