Ohio man sentenced for heroin possession

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced today that Joseph Lee Church, 36, of Columbus, Ohio, was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for possession of multiple controlled substances with intent to distribute by United States District Court Judge Thomas E. Johnston in Charleston.

Church pleaded guilty in May 2014, to possession of, with the intent to distribute, heroin, hydromorphone, oxycodone, hydrocodone and amphetamine. He previously admitted this to Kanawha County sheriff’s deputies when arrested in the Rand, West Virginia, area on Dec. 10, 2011.  Church said the drugs had been brought to the area from Columbus.

The case was investigated by the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant United States Attorney John Frail handled the prosecution of this case.

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 heroin and prescription drugs.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down illegal pill trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of opiate painkillers in communities across the Southern District.