News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2009
In matters prosecuted by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia:
FEDERAL INMATE SENTENCED FOR POSSESSING WEAPON
BECKLEY, W. Va. – A federal inmate serving a prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Beckley, West Virginia was sentenced today to 27 months imprisonment for possessing a weapon inside the prison. Miguel Rodriguez, 33, of Brandenburg, Kentucky, previously pled guilty in June 2009, admitting he possessed a metal lock in a sock during an altercation with another inmate at the prison on March 14, 2009. Rodriguez is currently serving a sentence for armed bank robbery and using a firearm during a crime of violence. United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston ordered that Rodriguez serve the sentence imposed today consecutively to the sentence he is currently serving. The Bureau of Prisons and the Federal Bureau of Investigation jointly conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney John L. File handled the prosecution.
HUNTINGTON MAN SENTENCED FOR STEALING MAIL
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. – Matthew D. Pennington, 29, of Huntington, West Virginia, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers to 27 months imprisonment for aiding and abetting the theft of mail. Pennington pled guilty on April 27, 2009, admitting he helped take four bags of mail from a United States Postal Service contract truck in Wayne County, near Prichard, West Virginia. The conviction stems from an investigation conducted by the United States Postal Inspection Service. According to court documents, on October 25, 2008, Pennington and Edward Jackson took four bags of mail from the contract truck and then staged the truck to appear as if it had broken down. Postal investigators quickly learned that the only missing mail bags contained over $13,000. Once confronted, the duo confessed. Jackson was sentenced to five years probation for his involvement in the crime. Pennington, who failed to appear for his original sentencing date in August 2009, was also ordered to serve three years on supervised release upon completion of his term of imprisonment. Both were ordered to pay restitution to the Postal Service. Assistant United States Attorney Erik S. Goes handled the prosecution.