Judge: Solis’ birth certificate needs verification

The attorney for the Lady's Island man who claimed to be fathering quintuplets produced a Mexican birth certificate in a court hearing Thursday putting Juan Salvador Solis' age at the time of his arrest at 16.

"He's a child," his attorney Lee Bowers said after the brief hearing in the Beaufort County Courthouse.

Bowers said his goal for settling the age question is to have the case moved from general sessions court to family court. Before his arrest in January, Solis said he was 24. When arrested, Beaufort County Detention Center logs put his age at 22.

The date of birth in the Mexican document is consistent with what Solis gave when he sought medical treatment for a construction-related injury in 2006, though Judge Carmen Mullen asked Bowers to go a step further and have the federal government or a U.S. embassy authenticate the birth certificate.

"I would encourage his parents to give testimony, if they can, as to his age," Mullen added.

Bowers said it's possible, since both live in the county.

Solis and Erika Nieves-Abrigo, aka Nancy Cantu, both of 45 Youmans Drive on Lady's Island, claimed in December to be pregnant with quintuplets and received gifts and donations as their story spread.

Investigators with the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office convinced Nieves-Abrigo to have an ultrasound in January, revealing she was not pregnant at all. Solis and Nieves-Abrigo were charged with obtaining goods under false pretenses and face up to five years in prison if convicted. They've been held at the Beaufort County Detention Center since their arrest, unable to get out on bond because the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has flagged the couple for its own investigation.

In a Jan. 11 interview, Cantu said in Spanish she was in the country legally, though Solis was not.

John K. Crout of the S.C. Attorney General's office represented the state and had nothing to add at the hearing.

Bowers, a private lawyer with offices in Estill and Bluffton, said Solis is not paying for his legal services.

"He's not," Bowers said. "Sometimes you have to do things because they're right."

Solis was in court sporting a mullet, green detention center outfit and shackles on his arms and legs. He did not speak at the hearing.