FAYETTEVILLE, WV (LOOTPRESS) – A Fayette County man has received an additional sentence after providing drugs to a fellow inmate.
Anthony Ciliberti, Jr., Prosecuting Attorney for Fayette County reports that, on April 3, 2023, deputies with the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department observed an inmate in custody in the holding cell of the Fayette County Courthouse who appeared to be experiencing an overdose.
Review of the video surveillance footage revealed that an inmate who had just been taken into custody – identified as Kenneth Sheets, 44 years old of Mt. Nebo, WV – had provided the inmate in question with a substance covered in plastic wrapping which the other inmate then proceeded to snort.
The remainder of the plastic wrap with the suspected controlled substance had discarded into a trash can afterward.
The material containing the suspected controlled substance was sent to the West Virginia State Police Forensic Lab for testing after being recovered by deputies .
Laboratory testing confirmed that the substance in question had been a mixture of heroin and fentanyl.
The inmate experiencing the apparent overdose in the holding cell area required Narcan administration by deputies. A fatal incident was circumvented, and this inmate was convicted of a drug charge as well in relation to the incident.
According to Ciliberti, on May 7, 2024, Sheets was sentenced by Chief Judge Paul M. Blake, Jr. to two-to-ten years in prison for the felony offense of Aiding an Adult in Confinement based on the incident.
Sheets reportedly pled guilty to the preceding felony on March 14, 2024, and is currently serving a three-and-a-half-year to twenty-five-year sentence for an unrelated case out of the  Nicholas County area.
Judge Blake ordered these sentences run concurrently
The investigation of these crimes was facilitated by the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department, and the resulting case was prosecuted by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Sarah F. Smith.
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