Charleston Woman Pleads Guilty to Meth Distribution Charge

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Charleston woman entered a guilty plea today to a federal drug trafficking crime, announced United States Attorney Mike Stuart. Baylee Gibson, age 19, of Bench Road, pled guilty to distribution of 5 grams or more of methamphetamine.

Stuart praised the work of the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team (MDENT).

“It’s always tragic when young people make bad choices that forever alter the course of their lives,” said United States Attorney Stuart.  “Becoming a drug dealer is one of the worst choices anyone could make and, as a result, this defendant will be spending much of her young adulthood in federal prison.”

On August  25,  2017,  an agent  with  MDENT arranged to meet Gibson and purchase one ounce of methamphetamine for $1200. The agent had spoken to Gibson on the telephone and had arranged the price and quantity.. Gibson told the agent to meet her at a parking lot just off the campus of West Virginia State University (WVSU) on Baron Drive in Institute.  This was the site of a previous methamphetamine sale by Gibson.  The agent met Gibson as planned. After a brief discussion, Gibson took $1200.00 of prerecorded buy money, got out of the agent' s car and walked towards the campus of WVSU.  Additional MDENT agents were positioned around the campus conducting surveillance. Gibson then met with another individual, later identified as her co­ defendant, Kyle Keith Russell, and returned to the agent's car. There, Gibson provided the agent with a clear plastic bag with a substance that field tested positive as methamphetamine. The substance was sent to the Mid-Atlantic DEA laboratory where it was tested. The testing showed the substance was 23.39 grams of pure methamphetamine. Gibson arranged and sold methamphetamine to the  same undercover agent on August 22, 2017, and twice on August 30, 2017. The agent arranged all three of those additional sales directly with Gibson. Those sales took place in the same manner and at the same location as the count of conviction.  Kyle Keith Russell was Gibson’s source of supply for those sales.   Russell’s jury trial is scheduled for May 15, 2018.

Gibson faces up to 40 years imprisonment and up to a $5 million fine when she is sentenced on July 10, 2018.  United States District Court Judge John T. Copenhaver presided over the plea hearing.  Assistant United States Attorney R. Gregory McVey handled the prosecution.

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