Agent: Alleged cop killer set up meth sales from jail | WJHL

FILE PHOTO: Michael Donovan White appeared in court Nov. 23 after being arrested for the alleged killing of Big Stone Gap officer Michael Chandler. (WJHL)

ABINGDON, Va. (WJHL) — The man accused of fatally shooting a Big Stone Gap police officer helped set up continued methamphetamine sales from a Big Stone Gap house from inside jail, a federal affidavit claims.

The affidavit from Special Agent William Duke of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) supports the April 20 federal complaint seeking the seizure of two Big Stone Gap houses, 2505 Orr St. and 2512 Orr St.

Michael Donivan White is accused of shooting Officer Michael Chandler outside 2505 Orr early in the morning of Nov. 13, 2021.

The complaint and affidavit describe a large drug operation dealing mostly methamphetamine out of the houses, which are owned by Eddie Westmoreland and his wife, Tiny Westmoreland.

It alleges the couple, who moved from 2512 Orr St. in 2019 or 2020, were aware of the criminal activity and drug use taking place at their homes. The couple allowed their daughter Tina and her partner Jimmy Peters, whom records say were both methamphetamine users, to live rent-free at 2512 after they moved.

The complaint and affidavit also put White at the center of much of the drug activity that also resulted in White and 18 other people being charged with federal drug conspiracy and firearms charges Oct. 25, 2022.

The affidavit references several phone calls White made from the Southwest Regional Jail on Dec. 13, 2021, a month after he was arrested. It says that a Kacie Werner told White she needed money and that he had told her and another woman, Amber Burns, “all they needed to do was sit at the Orr Street house (and) the money would come there.”

The affidavit says White told Werner to “call Timmy Jones and tell him what’s going on, and that she and (Burns) were going to be setting up shop at the Orr Street house.”

White said the house could support sales of $300 to $400 a day in $10 sales of “points” (one-tenth of a gram) of meth.

“Based on my training, experience and participation in this investigation, I believe White and Werner were discussing how Werner and Burns were going to continue selling methamphetamine and other drugs from the white house while White is incarcerated,” Duke wrote.

Also on Dec. 13, White called another indictee in the conspiracy case, Misty Ward. He told her that he had told Werner “to ‘go over there and talk to Tyler (Westmoreland) and Amber (Burns), sit your happy [omitted] down there on Orr Street and pick up all the $20/$30/$0/$50/$60 serves right there, all selling points, and make you some [omitted] money.’”

Burns, Jones and Werner, along with Tina Westmoreland and her son Tyler were among those charged in the October 2022 conspiracy arrests.

Duke’s affidavit describes an interview Duke and another officer conducted on Jan. 31, 2023 with Eddie Westmoreland. Westmoreland allegedly admitted knowing about the drug use and crime at the two houses and said his own daughter and grandson had stolen thousands of dollars worth of his property while they lived there rent-free.

It says Westmoreland was at the houses regularly, saw needles, Narcan, smoking pipes and drug residue, among other signs, and that he knew his daughter shot up meth at the houses between 2019 and 2022. Neighbors and a tenant at one of the houses also warned Westmoreland about goings on at the houses.

Westmoreland told the interviews that at a certain point he was “ready to put them out, but his wife (Tiny) said he could not do that to Tina and Tyler.”

He also said “he felt that kicking Tina and the others out may have stopped the problem, but he could not bring himself to put them out on the street,” the affidavit states.

The complaint claims the Westmoreland couple “never called the police, charged folks with trespassing, or took any legal action against most of the individuals at the property.”

It says the houses are subject to forfeiture because the couple had cause to know it was being used to manufacture or distribute drugs, being used as the center of a drug dealing conspiracy, and was being maintained as drug-involved premises.

The Westmorelands’ daughter Tina and grandson Tyler both entered plea agreements in their drug cases in early November 2022 and are scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 27.