Oak Hill Drug Dealer Sentenced For Selling Meth To An Informant

Monday, December 8, 2025, 7:30 A.M. ET. 3 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,

CHARLESTON, W.VA.- Last Tuesday, a 40-year-old Oak Hill, West Virginia, man learned he would be spending a little over three years in federal prison after being sentenced for selling methamphetamine multiple times to a confidential informant in Oak Hill, West Virginia.

     According to U.S. Attorney Moore Capito, on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, John Gray, 40, of Oak Hill, West Virginia, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia and was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Frank W. Volk to 37 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, after previously pleading guilty to Distributing a Controlled Substance, Methamphetamine.

     According to charging documents and statements made in the District Court, on March 28, 2023, during an ongoing narcotics investigation, Gray sold just around two pounds of methamphetamine to a confidential informant in Oak Hill, West Virginia, under the observation of law enforcement Investigators.

During His Previous Plea Allocution Gray Admitted To Selling Meth

     During his plea allocution, Gray admitted to the transaction and further admitted to selling around 848 grams of methamphetamine to a confidential informant in Oak Hill, West Virginia, on May 1, 2023. Gray further admitted to selling 3 grams of fentanyl on May 3, 2023, and another 3 grams of fentanyl on May 6, 2023, both times to a confidential informant in Oak Hill, West Virginia.

     On March 1, 2024, during an interview with law enforcement Investigators, Gray admitted that he had been selling approximately three grams of fentanyl three times a week from April 2023 until his arrest in March 2024.

     Gray was among four individuals indicted by a Federal Grand Jury on charges alleging they participated in a drug trafficking conspiracy. All four have pleaded guilty. Phillip Gray, 42, also of Oak Hill, West Virginia, and brother of John Gray, was sentenced on October 15, 2025, to 120 months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, for conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.

     Leondus Whittenburg, 43, of Beckley, West Virginia, was sentenced on August 9, 2025, to 95 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for distribution of 5 grams or more of methamphetamine. Daemien Thompson, 40, of Oak Hill, West Virginia, pleaded guilty on May 7, 2025, to conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and is scheduled to be sentenced on January 8, 2026.

     U.S. Attorney Capito commended the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Central Regional Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, which resulted in the successful prosecution of Gray.