CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – A West Virginia man will spend 10 years behind bars for a federal gun crime in connection to his part in a failed Fourth of July murder plot.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Douglas Johnathan Wesley, 33, of Charleston was sentenced today, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022 to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. On May 26, 2022, he was found guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Court records say evidence at the trial established Wesley as one of four men accused of arming themselves at a home in Rand on July 4, 2021 and driving to Charleston’s West Side where they allegedly intended to shoot another man.
Court records say authorities had been alerted to the murder plot and responded to the area. According to the DOJ, the men then abandoned their vehicle in a parking lot due to the police presence. After a search of the vehicle, authorities said they found four loaded firearms, one of which was determined by a jury to belong to Wesley.
Wesley had two prior convictions, which prohibited him from carrying a firearm, authorities say. The DOJ says Wesley was on supervised release from the second conviction at the time of the murder plot.
According to the DOJ, Wesley is one of 17 people who were charged with various drug and firearm offenses through three separate indictments that resulted from a long-term investigation into a “large-volume methamphetamine conspiracy” that was allegedly operating in and around the areas of South Charleston and St. Albans. All 17 of those individuals have pleaded guilty or were convicted in court, the DOJ says.