Mt. Hope man sentenced for felony drug conspiracy and child neglect

FAYETTE COUNTY, W.Va. (WVVA) - Prosecuting Attorney for Fayette County Anthony Ciliberti, Jr. announced that Craig Webster, 35, of Mt. Hope, West Virginia was sentenced for felony drug conspiracy and child neglect.

Ciliberti’s statement said, “Webster was sentenced to serve 10 years for the crime of conspiracy to possess with the intent to deliver fentanyl, and to serve one to five years for four counts of the felony offense of gross child neglect creating risk of death or serious injury.”

Webster’s child neglect sentences are to be served concurrently to each other, but consecutively to the felony drug conviction making his maximum sentence 15 years.

Webster must serve a minimum of three and a half years in prison before being eligible for parole. Webster pled guilty to these crimes on January 3, 2023.

Ciliberti said, “On Dec. 17, 2020, Fayette County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a shooting incident involving a juvenile that had occurred in the Mill Creek Road area of Mount Hope. When officers arrived on the scene, they found a 13-year-old child had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. After additional investigation, officers learned a total of seven juveniles were in the home at the time of the incident and that one of the juveniles had brought the firearm to the residence and that he had accidentally shot another juvenile. While officers were searching for evidence related to the shooting, officers located a bag containing a large quantity of suspected heroin. After finding the suspected heroin, officers obtained a search warrant to search the entire home. The search of the entire home yielded additional suspected heroin, digital scales, and other evidence of drug trafficking.”

It was later learned that the home was being used as a larger drug trafficking operation. A total of 420 grams of fentanyl was recovered in the residence.