Kanawha County Man Sentenced to More than 15 Years in Prison for Federal Drug Crime and Supervised Release Violation

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Jonathan Kennedy, 45, of St. Albans, was sentenced on Thursday, April 30, 2026, to 15 years and eight months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, for conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine and for violating supervised release.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between May and August 2025, Kennedy participated in a conspiracy that distributed methamphetamine in St. Albans and elsewhere. As part of his guilty plea, Kennedy admitted that a co-conspirator in California shipped several pounds of methamphetamine to locations in Kanawha County during the time period. Kennedy further admitted that he took possession of the methamphetamine and re-distributed it after arranging for another co-conspirator to pick up the shipments at the delivery locations.

Kennedy also admitted that he provided half-pound quantities of methamphetamine to a co-conspirator in St. Albans on May 30, 2025, and June 24, 2025, each time after the co-conspirator contacted him seeking methamphetamine for re-distribution to a customer. On June 25, 2025, Kennedy distributed approximately 690 grams of methamphetamine to a confidential informant in St. Albans.

On August 22, 2025, law enforcement officers intercepted a package en route to a Dunbar address and found it contained approximately 38 pounds of methamphetamine. Officers replaced most of the methamphetamine with a non-narcotic substance before the package was delivered to the Dunbar address. Kennedy admitted that he arranged for a co-conspirator to pick up the package and deliver it to a St. Albans address where Kennedy later took possession of it. Officers approached and arrested Kennedy shortly after he picked up the package.

At the time of this offense, Kennedy was serving a term of supervised release as a result of his October 4, 2022, conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Kennedy possessed a Dickinson model XXPA 12-gauge shotgun on June 30, 2022, the opening day of the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta, during an incident at Jet Life Apparel on Leon Sullivan Way in Charleston in which shots were fired. Law enforcement officers recovered the shotgun and a second firearm in an alley near the business following the incident. Both firearms were loaded with high-capacity drum magazines.

Today’s sentence includes eight months for violating supervised release. Kennedy has a long criminal history that includes eight felony convictions, six of them for federal offenses.

“This isn’t just a drug case — this is a three-decade campaign of destruction. Nearly 40 pounds of meth, shipped in from California, funneled straight into our community like poison through a pipeline,” said United States Attorney Moore Capito. “Even prison didn’t stop him. Even supervision didn’t slow him. That tells you exactly who we’re dealing with. We stayed on him because the stakes were too high to do anything less. Today, that pipeline is shut down, and this community is safer for it. And let this be understood — if you bring this kind of poison here, we will hunt you down and make sure you don’t get a second chance to do it again.”

Capito made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team (MDENT), which is composed of the Charleston Police Department, the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, the Nitro Police Department, the St. Albans Police Department and the South Charleston Police Department.

United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston imposed the sentence. Assistant United States Attorney Jeremy B. Wolfe prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:25-cr-166.

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