CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Charleston man pleaded guilty today to separate charges of escape and possession with intent to distribute heroin, announced United States Attorney Carol Casto. Brandon Christopher Solomon, 21, originally from Detroit, entered his guilty plea to a two-count indictment.
Solomon admitted that in December 2015, he escaped from a halfway house in St. Albans. Solomon was at the halfway house finishing a sentence for violating his federal supervised release from a prior drug conviction. Solomon’s whereabouts were unknown for several months until April 28, 2016, when officers with the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team located him while executing a search warrant on Daniel Boone Drive in Charleston. Solomon was arrested on the outstanding escape warrant, and when he was searched, officers located six baggies of heroin and cash in his pocket.
Solomon faces up to 25 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on October 27, 2016.
The United States Marshals Service and the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Haley Bunn is in charge of the prosecution. The plea hearing was held before United States District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin.
This prosecution was brought as part of an ongoing effort led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to combat the illicit sale and misuse of prescription drugs and heroin. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down illegal pill trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of opiate painkillers and heroin in communities across the Southern District.
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