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April 8, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Falling Waters Resident Sentenced to 7+ Years
For Retaliation Against a Witness with the Intent to Kill

MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA — A 21 year old Falling Waters, West Virginia, resident was sentenced on April 7, 2009, in United States District Count in Martinsburg by Chief Judge John Preston Bailey.

United States Attorney Sharon L. Potter announced that MATTHEW QUINN MASON, also known as “Q,” was sentenced to 95 months imprisonment to be followed by four years supervised release. MASON was convicted in October 2008 of conspiring with co-defendant Travis Jackson Latta and attempting to kill a person known to the Grand Jury with the intent of retaliating against the person; and of discharging a firearm at an individual while he drove his vehicle on April 30, 2008, and causing damage to his property, with the intent of retaliating against that person.

Potter stated that evidence presented at trial proved that on April 30, 2008, an individual who had testified in the August 2007 drug trial of United States v. Cecil Ray, Jr., was followed home after work by MASON and Latta. Shortly after reaching the Martin’s Landing apartment complex, Latta fired shots from the vehicle MASON was driving using a 9mm HiPoint pistol. The victim was not injured but bullets lodged within the passenger seats of the victim’s van and in the tire.

MASON is in federal custody. The co-defendant in this case, Travis Jackson Latta, earlier pled guilty to one count of attempting to kill a person on April 30, 2008, in retaliation against the person; and was sentenced to 63 months imprisonment.

MASON was ordered to pay restitution to the victim in the amount of $4,166, to be paid jointly with co-defendant Latta.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Erin K. Reisenweber and Thomas O. Mucklow. The case was investigated by the Martinsburg City Police Department, the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department, and the West Virginia State Police.