Federal Jury Finds Charleston Meth Dealer Guilty of Drug Crimes

CHARLESTON, W.VA. –  A federal jury found Don Lamont Wilkerson, 44, of Charleston, guilty of three counts of distributing methamphetamine, announced United States Attorney Mike Stuart.  Wilkerson was convicted following a three day jury trial.

United States Attorney Stuart commended the investigative work of the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team (MDENT). 

“We are pleased that our community will have one less drug dealer as a result of this jury verdict,” said United States Attorney Mike Stuart.  “Wilkerson’s prior felony drug conviction obviously didn’t motivate him to stop being a criminal, so now he gets the privilege of being locked up for a long time.”  

Witnesses for the United States testified that Wilkerson sold a total of five ounces of methamphetamine to a confidential informant on three separate occasions in September of 2016. The drug deals took place in retail parking lots in the South Hills and Kanawha City neighborhoods of Charleston. The drugs were subsequently analyzed by the U. S. Customs and Border Patrol’s Savannah laboratory.  A forensic chemist testified that the drugs recovered were in fact methamphetamine with a purity level of at least 95%.  

Wilkerson, who has a prior felony drug conviction, faces a mandatory minimum of twenty years and up to life in federal prison when he is sentenced on August 7, 2018. 

Assistant United States Attorneys Gabriele Wohl and Steven I. Loew are in charge of the prosecution and tried the case before a federal jury. Senior United States District Judge David A. Faber presided over the trial. 

This case is being prosecuted as part of an ongoing effort led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to combat the illicit sale and misuse of illegal drugs, including methamphetamine. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down pill trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of illegal drugs in communities across the Southern District.

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