OC Sheriff’s Office files Charges against Westminster Man

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office filed charges late last week against a Westminster man who was being sought last Thursday night as a person of interest in relation to several Westminster area burglaries and larcenies. 26-year-old Joseph Edward Kinsel, who has listed addresses of Ten Downing Street in Fountain Inn as well as Sunshine Ridge Road in Westminster, was apprehended last Thursday evening behind a business on South Radio Station Road near Highway 123 in Seneca and was transported to Oconee Memorial Hospital for treatment due to an issue unrelated to his arrest. Kinsel was released from the hospital last Friday afternoon and was booked into the Oconee County Detention Center around 2:38pm on a Temporary Custody Order as arrest warrants were obtained. Kinsel has been charged with two counts of grand larceny, one count of third degree burglary and one count of failure to stop for a blue light. A hold has also been placed on Kinsel by the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office. Kinsel is accused in arrest warrants of entering a building located at an address on Dr. John’s Road near Westminster. Kinsel is also accused in the arrest warrants with stealing a Kubota ATV and a Yamaha Kodiak 4×4 ATV from the same address on Dr. John’s Road. The warrant on the failure to stop charge stems from an incident in which deputies pursued Kinsel on Johnson Street in Westminster on the Kodiak 4 wheeler that was reported stolen. Kinsel refused to pull over and went off the road behind a business in Westminster and was not apprehended. Both 4 wheelers that were stolen were later recovered by deputies. At this time, Kinsel remains in custody at the Oconee County Detention Center on a combined $29,000 surety bond. The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is continuing their investigation.