CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A Charleston man pled guilty today to a federal drug charge, announced United States Attorney Mike Stuart. Steven Craig Coleman, 31, pled guilty before Senior United States District Judge David A. Faber to possessing heroin with intent to distribute. Coleman has a 2016 conviction for involuntary manslaughter for distributing heroin to a woman causing a fatal overdose. Stuart commended the investigation conducted by the Charleston Police Department, South Charleston Police Department, and Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team (MDENT).
“Enough is enough. Coleman has a prior conviction in state court in connection with the distribution of heroin causing a fatal overdose," said United States Attorney Mike Stuart. “The very next year, he was back to peddling deadly poisons in Charleston. Coleman has been detained since his arrest on federal charges."
As established by public court filings and hearings, in July 2017, police investigators learned from a confidential source that Coleman was selling several ounces of heroin from his house on 7th Avenue in Charleston. On July 20, 2017, Coleman sold a confidential informant a substance containing fentanyl. A week later, investigators executed a search warrant at Coleman’s house, where they found Coleman carrying several thousand dollars in drug proceeds and around 50 grams of methamphetamine outside of an open window near Coleman.
On August 8, 2018, police again met Coleman at his house and he gave them permission to search his room. Coleman directed an investigator to where he was hiding his drugs. Police ultimately found close to 10 grams of drug mixtures containing heroin, fentanyl, and acetyl fentanyl, a deadly fentanyl analogue.
Coleman is facing up to twenty years in federal prison when he is sentenced on Aug. 13, 2019. Assistant United States Attorney Drew O. Inman is handling the prosecution.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
