David J. Kerns, Heroin Trafficking, WV 2024

Two Parkersburg residents, David J. Kerns, 27, and Katie M. Kerns, 26 — no relation — are headed to federal prison after being sentenced this week for transporting 10 ounces of heroin across state lines. The conviction, handed down in Charleston, W.Va., marks another strike in the federal crackdown on opioid trafficking through Appalachia.

Katie M. Kerns was sentenced yesterday to two years and five months in federal prison. David J. Kerns received a harsher penalty today: two years and eight months behind bars. Both pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute heroin, a charge carrying stiff penalties under federal law.

The bust went down on February 19, 2015, when West Virginia State Police pulled over the pair on the U.S. Route 50 “Dupont Bridge” as they crossed from Ohio into West Virginia. They were coming from Cincinnati, where David Kerns had purchased the heroin for $20,000 — a deal brokered, according to court admissions, through a source Katie Kerns introduced him to.

Troopers searched the vehicle and found the drugs cleverly stashed: concealed inside tubes of grease. The 10 ounces of heroin, worth tens of thousands on the street, were seized before they could flood neighborhoods already drowning in opioid abuse.

The prosecution was handled by Assistant United States Attorney Joshua Hanks. United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston handed down both sentences, underscoring the zero-tolerance stance federal courts are taking in the region’s drug wars.

This case is part of a broader offensive led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia, targeting the illicit sale and distribution of heroin and prescription pills. With federal, state, and local agencies working in tandem, operations like this one aim to dismantle trafficking networks and choke off supply in communities ravaged by addiction.

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