Pittsburgh man pleads guilty to federal drug crime

The maximum Gaston could face is 20 years. But the much more likely sentence is somewhere around a few years in federal custody, to be followed by 3 years of release monitored by a U.S. probation officer.

Gaston was transferred from the custody of correctional officers at St. Mary’s Correctional Center, where he’s serving a term of 3-25 years, to be transported to Clarksburg by deputy marshals for Friday’s court session.

The defendant will be eligible for parole in the state case Oct. 9.

Keeley told Gaston the federal sentence she will impose at a hearing this summer will run consecutive to the state term.

Gaston was traveling back and forth from Pittsburgh to the Clarksburg area at the time of his arrest, he told the court.

Gaston was returning from a trip to the Steel City when he was arrested by the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department Street Crimes and Drug unit following an October 2013 undercover buy at the W.Va. 131 park and ride off Interstate 79.

Law enforcement seized about $30,000 worth of heroin, a loaded semiautomatic handgun, marijuana and money that was used in the controlled buy. The Division of Natural Resources assisted.

The arrest by the Street Crimes and Drug unit came at a time when Gaston had been under active investigation by the Greater Harrison Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force. The Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force already had conducted controlled buys, including the one to which Gaston pleaded guilty Friday.

Members of the Street Crime and Drug unit didn’t check with the Drug and Violent Crimes Force before conducting their controlled buy operation, according to the commander of the Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force.

Such a process — called deconfliction — is common among units that use informants and undercover operatives to address drug trafficking, organized crime and/or gang activity. That’s done for two reasons: To protect officers and informants and to prevent duplication of effort.

Statements in court Friday indicated Assistant Federal Defender Richard Walker lobbied at length before striking the final plea deal with Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Adkins.

Also:

— Thomas J. MacWilliams, 52, also known as Greg and Corporal George, should have his 151-month sentence on a federal drug crime vacated and he should be resentenced.

That’s according to MacWilliams’ attorney, Federal Defender Brian Kornbrath, who alleges a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling — applied retroactively — means the defendant’s sentencing as a career offender was unlawful.

If Kornbrath prevails on the motion, MacWilliams, scheduled for release next year, instead would be set free immediately with credit for time served. That’s because the sentence would be drastically less than what was imposed in 2007 for maintaining a Gilmer County dwelling for manufacturing marijuana.

— Davel Godfrey Young, 53, of Montego Bay, Jamaica, has been sentenced by Keeley to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for wire fraud committed in an international lottery scam.

Young also will have to spend 2 years on supervised release and was ordered to pay about $232,000 in restitution.

Young tricked Americans into thinking they’d won millions of dollars or luxury cars, then scammed them by getting them to believe they had to pay taxes and processing fees by wiring funds to Jamaica or elsewhere, the office of U.S. Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld II has alleged.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Cogar presented the government’s case, while Kornbrath represented Young.

— Keeley has sentenced Antonio Cottingham to 46 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Cottingham, 29, of Fairmont, possessed a .44-caliber revolver in August 2015 in Fairmont, Fairmont Police and the ATF alleged in the case presented by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Perri.

— Justin Donald Myers, 36, of Morgantown, has pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Michael John Aloi to aiding and abetting distribution of heroin with 1,000 feet of a protected location.

Myers will be sentenced by Keeley at a later date in the Mon Metro Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force case.

Ihlenfeld’s office alleges Myers was part of a Michigan to Morgantown heroin trafficking operation.