Mar. 7—Huntington man pleads guilty to fentanyl crime

huntington, w.va. — Zachary Scott Whitmore, 32, of Huntington, pleaded guilty Tuesday to distribution of fentanyl.

According to court records, Whitmore sold 7 grams of suspected heroin on Oct. 19, 2022, to a confidential informant near 25th Street in Huntington for $700. Whitmore also admitted to arranging the sale of 7 grams of suspected heroin to a confidential informant at a 9th Avenue residence in Huntington on Oct. 24, 2022.

Whitmore is scheduled to be sentenced on June 21 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $1 million fine.

----Man faces mandatory 15 years on child porn conviction

charleston, w.va. — Billy Eggleston, 50, of St. Albans, pleaded guilty Tuesday to production of child pornography.

According to court records, Eggleston induced a prepubescent minor child to engage in sexually explicit conduct on March 26, 2020, for the purpose of photographing such conduct.

Eggleston used his cell phone to take a series of 24 photos of him engaged in sexually explicit conduct with the minor. The sexually explicit photos were taken by Eggleston in his bedroom.

Eggleston possessed nearly 5,000 videos and images of child pornography on his desktop computer and a memory card on Oct. 21, 2022. Eggleston further admitted that one of these images was of an adult male sexually assaulting a minor female between 4 and 7 years old, and another image was of a minor female between 2 and 4 years old subjected to sexually explicit conduct by an adult male.

Eggleston is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 3 and faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years and up to 30 years in prison, five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Eggleston must also register as a sex offender.