Suspect in 3 W.Va. slayings faces drug charges
CHARLESTON (AP) — A Kanawha County man accused of killing three people in 2003 is facing a new charge.
A federal grand jury indicted 37-year-old Shawn Lester on Tuesday on a drug charge. Lester is charged with conspiring to distribute oxycodone and cocaine from 2005 to March 30, 2011.
Lester is awaiting trial on unrelated state murder charges in the fatal shootings of 31-year-old Jeannie Patton, Okey Meadows Jr. and Gary Carrier. Police say all three victims were shot with the same rifle outside convenience stores in August 2003.
The sniper-style slayings rattled the Kanawha Valley because they appeared to be random. Prosecutors say drugs are at the center of the case.
In January, Lester pleaded guilty to an unrelated federal weapons charge.
