The second half of a pair of West Virginia coal mine thieves who stole nearly $3 million worth of specialized electrical mining equipment from two Western Pennsylvania mine sites is headed to federal prison for four years.
U.S. District Judge Mark Hornak in Pittsburgh imposed that term Wednesday on David Stanley of Beckley, a former coal miner and equipment reseller who admitted to the thefts along with a partner, Eudell Dickerson.
Dickerson, also a former miner from Beckley, is already in federal prison.
The pair, both of whom are in their 40s and have spent much of their lives stealing things, had pleaded guilty in connection to a scheme to pilfer specialized mining equipment in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Virginia and take it to West Virginia for resale.
In Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh FBI said, five break-ins occurred from February 2017 through May of that year at mine sites in Indiana and Armstrong counties.
Stanley and Dickerson admitted that they and others stole the equipment and sold it to a company, American Mine Power, that sells used equipment back home in Beckley.
The equipment the men stole consisted of specialized electrical devices used to power 60-ton machines called miners that cut coal from the ground. One of them is a frequency drive, which is used to regulate the frequency and voltage of the miner machine and the shuttle cars used to transport coal to the surface. The drives weigh about 60 pounds and cost $50,000.
Agents found some of the equipment at the reseller’s facility and also identified trucks that Stanley and Dickerson drove to transport the stolen devices. Stanley also admitted that he and others had stolen equipment at other sites in Kentucky and Virginia.
In imposing the four-year prison term, Judge Hornak noted that Stanley has a substantial criminal history, including a federal conviction for witness tampering that occurred after he pleaded guilty in the mining case. The judge said Stanley has “difficulty following rules.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Silinski said Stanley has had a minimal work history. He was a coal miner from 2002 to 2008, when he got hurt on the job.
“While his work injury left him injured and unable to work, he has found an additional way to make money — taking things that do not belong to him,” she said.
In all, the stolen equipment was worth $2.9 million.
Hornak ordered Stanley to pay that in restitution, as he did with Dickerson.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
