FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Nov.21, 2011
LAST DEFENDANT SENTENCED TO ALMOST FIVE YEARS IN PRISON AS PART OF HUNTINGTON’S DRUG MARKET INTERVENTION INITIATIVE
All Nine Individuals Convicted As Part Of Fairfield District’s Drug & Crime-Fighting Initiative Now Serving Prison Terms
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The remaining defendant charged as part of a yearlong drug and crime-fighting strategy targeting the Fairfield district of Huntington was sentenced today in federal court, announced U. S. Attorney Booth Goodwin. Edward Peter Floyd, Jr., 54, of Huntington, was sentenced to 57 months in prison by United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers for distribution of oxycodone. Floyd admitted that on March 10, 2010, he met with two individuals at 1st Street and Belford ½ Alley and sold four 80-milligram oxycodone pills in exchange for $240. The defendant and an associate with him at the time were stopped and arrested.
U. S. Attorney Booth Goodwin stated, “The nine defendants who were targeted as part of the DMI initiative have now been sentenced and eliminated from the Fairfield community.”
The prosecutions were brought as part of Huntington’s Drug Market Intervention (DMI) initiative. DMI was launched in October 2010 by U.S. Attorney Goodwin and Huntington Police Chief Skip Holbrook, in collaboration with other federal, state, local law enforcement agencies and representatives from the Fairfield West Improvement Council and the Fairfield Crime and Safety Committee of Huntington. As a result of undercover operations conducted by the Huntington Police Department and the Huntington Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force, certain offenders responsible for trafficking drugs in and around Fairfield were identified for prosecution. The enforcement phase of DMI’s implementation resulted in nine individuals being indicted federally. Today’s sentencing of defendant Floyd concludes sentencing for all nine federal defendants who were convicted as part of DMI. The other eight defendants were previously sentenced to the following terms of imprisonment:
* Melissa Jo Plants, of Huntington, WV -- 21 months;
* Elizabeth Dawn Powers, of Huntington, WV – 30 months;
* William Raeshaun Byrd, of Huntington, WV – 33 months;
* Derrick Lamont Jenkins, of Chicago, IL -- 48 months;
* Curtis Capers, of Detroit, Michigan – 87 months;
* Mika Lynn Ross, also known as Mika Myers, of Huntington, WV -- 87 months;
* John Pinkney, of Huntington, WV – 120 months; and,
* Stanley Smith, of Detroit, MI – 137 months.
Last month, U.S. Attorney Goodwin, Huntington Police Chief Skip Holbrook, Cabell County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Chiles, along with several Fairfield community leaders returned to the Marie Redd Senior Center to recognize the one-year anniversary of the Drug Market Intervention (DMI) initiative and discuss the impact it has had in Huntington. Since its launch a year ago, the DMI strategy has played an instrumental role in substantially reducing crimes of violence and drug dealing that once plagued the Fairfield area of Huntington.
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