Published: January 30, 2009 11:31 pm      

Former Oceana resident gets life sentence

A former Wyoming County resident will spend the rest of his life in prison for multiple prescription drug conspiracies that spanned 10 states and resulted in four overdose deaths, federal prosecutors said.

Rex I. Hatfield, 52, formerly of Oceana and Lebanon, Va., was sentenced to life in prison Friday in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis, Ill.

Hatfield was sentenced to life for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances with deaths resulting, prosecutors said. He was also sentenced to 10 years for conspiracy to commit pharmacy burglaries. The sentences are concurrent.

Hatfield’s younger brother, Everly Hatfield, 48, also of Oceana, is scheduled to be sentenced for the same crimes March 20. His sentencing originally was also scheduled for Friday, but according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, his defense attorneys needed more time to review the pre-sentencing report.

The Hatfield brothers were convicted Oct. 30, 2008, after a three-and-a-half-week trial. According to testimony from multiple witnesses, the Hatfields led a group that committed about 85 pharmacy burglaries in 10 states, including Illinois. Witnesses also said the Hatfields and their associates stole pain pills such as OxyContin, morphine patches (fentanyl) and other controlled substances worth more than $500,000 between 1998 and 2004.

The evidence suggested the Hatfields took the stolen pharmaceuticals back to West Virginia and to Virginia, where they were sold to dealers working for the Hatfields.

Because the Hatfields’ drug distribution activities resulted in four deaths, they faced life sentences, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said the jury returned special verdict forms which found the Hatfields’ activities resulted in the drug overdose deaths of Deborah Smith of Honaker, Va., in 2001; Mark Honaker of Lebanon, Va., in 2000; Carol Walker of Glen Fork in 2002; and Jimmy Dishmon (the Hatfields’ brother-in-law) in Oceana in 2003.

Witnesses testified the Hatfields suspected Smith and Walker were police informants. Walker died just a week before she was scheduled to testify against Everly Hatfield in state court in West Virginia, prosecutors said. Witnesses also said the Hatfields had bragged after Smith and Walker died, claiming, “Those who snitch on us tend to wake up dead.”

The jury returned another special verdict form holding the Hatfields responsible for causing life-threatening, drug-related injuries to Richard Ward in Glen White in October 2003. Witnesses said the brothers believed Ward was going to testify against them regarding a pharmacy burglary all three had committed in Princeton. They said Ward collapsed and stopped breathing after a drug injection, and Everly Hatfield said, “Let him die. Don’t revive him.”

— E-mail: apridemore@register-herald.com