Published: January 29, 2008 10:24 pm      

Beckley men plead guilty, get probation in separate trials

A 29-year-old Beckley man pleaded guilty to one count of forgery and was sentenced to 18 months of supervised probation Tuesday after Raleigh County Circuit Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick suspended a sentence of one to 10 years.

Charles Edward Blankenship was originally charged with five counts of forgery after he admitted to giving police his brother’s name on five different occasions when he was pulled over for traffic violations.

Blankenship was said to have given the false name to avoid arrest for driving on a suspended license.

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Michael Lynch, 44, of Beckley, was given a one-to-five-year suspended sentence with two years of supervised probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit a felony.

Lynch, the former manager of the now closed DFW Furniture in Beckley, was arrested in June after police received information he and stock manager Mark Hatcher, 30, of Beaver, had allegedly worked together to take furniture, some which they used and some of which they sold.

Lynch, who prosecutor Larry Frail said had no previous criminal record, said he “knew I was doing wrong when I did it.”

Kirkpatrick ordered Lynch to split restitution costs with Hatcher, who was sentenced to probation Jan. 18.