South Point man pleads guilty to fentanyl crime in West Virginia

Nathaniel Jarvis Kennard, 39, of South Point, Ohio, pleaded guilty recently to distribution of a quantity of fentanyl.

According to court documents and statements made in federal court in the Southern District of West Virginia, on Sept. 12, 2022, Kennard sold approximately 20 grams of fentanyl for $1,000 to a confidential informant at a location on U.S. Route 60 in Huntington, W.Va. Kennard admitted to that transaction and further admitted to five additional transactions with the confidential informant between July 20 and Sept. 21, 2022.

Kennard sold a total of approximately 82 grams of fentanyl, 10 grams of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl and 10 grams of methamphetamine during these transactions.

On Sept. 28, 2022, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at a Huntington residence where Kennard lived. During the search, officers found approximately 96 grams of fentanyl and 274 grams of methamphetamine in a vacant lot across the road from the residence. Kennard admitted that he hid the controlled substances in the vacant lot and intended to distribute them.

Kennard told officers that he had distributed controlled substances “off and on” in the Huntington area for at least the previous three years.

Kennard is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2, 2023 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, at least three years of supervised release and a $1 million fine.

United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cabell County Sheriff’s Department.

United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers presided over the hearing. Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph F. Adams and Stephanie Taylor are prosecuting the case.

This case was prosecuted as part of Operation Synthetic Opioid Surge (SOS), an enforcement surge that has sought to reduce the supply of deadly synthetic opioids in high-impact areas.