West Virginia Man Sentenced to 24 Months for Selling Fentanyl That Killed One
Jacob B. Deem of Mineral Wells pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia to distributing 1.4 grams of fentanyl that caused a fatal overdose. The sentence triggers mandatory federal reporting requirements and adds one more case to the Justice Department’s ongoing prosecutions of individual fentanyl distributors.
usatoday.comPARKERSBURG, W.Va. — Jacob B. Deem, 29, of Mineral Wells, was sentenced June 4 to 24 months in federal prison for distributing fentanyl that caused the death of another person.
Deem pleaded guilty in December 2025 to one count of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia said in a news release. U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin imposed the term, which includes three years of supervised release. Deem must also pay a $100 special assessment.
The case stems from Deem’s sale of 1.4 grams of fentanyl to an individual who died of an overdose in Wood County. Court records show the transaction occurred as part of a broader pattern of distribution investigated by federal agents.
The sentence moves Deem from pretrial status to immediate federal custody once he reports to the Bureau of Prisons. The Bureau must now designate a facility, a process that typically takes 30 to 90 days from sentencing. Upon release, Deem will enter supervised release during which any new drug offense carries a mandatory revocation penalty.
The outcome requires the U.S. Attorney’s Office to report the conviction and sentence to the federal firearms-prohibition database, permanently barring Deem from possessing firearms or ammunition. It also feeds into the Justice Department’s statistical tracking of fentanyl-related death cases, which totaled more than 1,200 federal sentences nationwide in fiscal 2025.
This marks the latest individual fentanyl-distribution case resolved in the Southern District of West Virginia, where prosecutors have pursued street-level dealers in addition to larger trafficking organizations. The Department of Justice has maintained a priority on cases that link specific distribution acts to overdose deaths, using the resulting-death enhancement under 21 U.S.C. § 841 to secure longer sentences.
Primary sources: U.S. Department of Justice · U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia
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