BECKLEY, W.V. (LOOTPRESS) – On Thursday, June 17, a Raleigh County man pleaded guilty to attempting to injure or kill with poison after lacing a woman’s drink with methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Timothy Basham pleaded guilty in front of Judge Andrew Dimlich for an incident that occurred in May.
According to Joshua Thompson, Raleigh County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Basham was a participant in the drug court program. He arrived at the Raleigh County Day Report Center on May 20, 2021, to be tested. The victim was also at the center being tested.
When the victim left the waiting area to be tested, she left her beverage on the table. When she returned and began to finish her drink, she immediately felt ill.
Thompson noted that this individual had been testing clean for two months; however, she was tested again after ingesting the beverage and her results can back positive for methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Basham confessed that he took the woman’s beverage while she was being tested and laced it in the men’s restroom. His actions were also caught on the Day Report Center’s interior cameras.
Thompson could not say if Basham had any connection to the victim and said he could find no “great justification” for why Basham poisoned the woman.
Additionally, Thompson did not know if participants at the center are searched before entering the premises.
Thompson noted that this case was placed at a top priority and made it to court as soon as possible due to the fact that it put the drug court program and Day Report Center into question.
After pleading guilty, Basham was sentenced to no less than three and no more than 18 years in a penitentiary.