Cross Lanes carjacker pleads guilty to multiple Federal charges following crime spree

U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of West Virginia
20 June 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Cross Lanes man pleaded guilty today to carjacking and a drug crime, announced Acting United States Attorney Carol Casto. David Allen Young, 24, entered his guilty plea to two counts of carjacking and one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

Young admitted that from summer 2014 through January 2016, he was part of a large-scale methamphetamine trafficking network. During that time period, he received at least 40 pounds of crystal methamphetamine from his sources and distributed it to individuals in and around Kanawha County.

Young further admitted that on January 24, 2016, he stole a Ford Expedition in Putnam County and fired a shot at an occupied vehicle in St. Albans. Later that same day, Young approached a Ford Edge SUV on foot near the intersection of Big Tyler Road and Waycross Drive in Cross Lanes. Young pointed a 9 mm handgun at a man occupying the SUV and ordered him to get out of the vehicle. The man complied and Young got into the Ford Edge and drove away. Young drove until he approached a Chevrolet S-10 truck in Cross Lanes occupied by another man and his juvenile son. Young pointed the same handgun at those individuals and ordered them out of the truck. Young then got into the truck and drove to the Dalewood Trailer Park in Cross Lanes. He shot through the glass door of a residence in the trailer park and stole a television, which he intended to trade for drugs. Young was arrested on January 26, 2016.

Young faces up to 50 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on October 5, 2016. The investigation into the drug conspiracy was handled by the FBI and the Charleston Police Department’s Special Enforcement Unit. The carjackings were investigated by the Kanawha County Sherriff’s Department. Assistant United States Attorney Haley Bunn is in charge of the prosecution. The plea hearing was held before United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr.

This case is being prosecuted as part of an ongoing effort led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to combat combat the illicit sale and misuse of illegal drugs, including methamphetamine. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down pill trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of illegal drugs in communities across the Southern District. This case was also brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods. Project Safe Neighborhoods is a nationwide commitment to reduce gun crime in the United States by networking existing local programs targeting gun crime.

Follow us on Twitter: SDWVNews