Michael Antonio Smith, 49, of Rand, Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States faces up to 10 years in federal prison. He will be sentenced on June 9, 2022.

On March 7, 2022, Smith pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, which is a federal gun crime. U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin presided over the plea hearing.  

.

During the summer of 2021, Smith kept in his Rand residence firearms and drugs for a member of a multi-state methamphetamine distribution organization operating in and around Charleston, Kanawha County. Police who executed a federal search warrant at the residence on September 29, 2021 found four firearms and approximately 34 grams of methamphetamine. 

Prior to this, Smith had felony convictions in Kanawha County Circuit Court for wanton endangerment with a firearm and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. The convictions prohibited him from possessing a firearm.

As a result of this investigation, Smith, Angie Lane Harbour, Denise Marie Cottrill, James Edward Bennet, Brian Dangelo Terry and Jason Robert Oxley and 11 other defendants were charged. In February 2022, Harbour and Cottrill pleaded guilty to methamphetamine charges.

On March 2, 2021, Bennett pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. On March 14, 2022, Terry and Oxley will also plead guilty.

Rand, West Virginia

Rand is a census-designated place on the Kanawha River in Kanawha County. It was named after Brick road patent holder Mordecai Levi‘s son Plus Rand Levi.

From 1907 to 1909, the place was named Plus but there was already a town with that name so it was renamed Levi. It was later renamed Rand because there was also another town in Braxton County, West Virginia named Levi.