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Hearing on meth case continued

By John Wickline

Upshur Bureau Chief

The preliminary hearing in Randolph County Magistrate Court was continued Wednesday for an Elkins man facing a charge of operating or attempting to operate a clandestine drug lab.

Jeremy Quentin Hamrick, 31, is being held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond. No new date was scheduled in the case, and his defense attorney, Chris Cooper, waived the requirement in which a hearing is to be held.

Hamrick was arrested earlier this month after an Elkins police officer responded to an alleged domestic dispute at the former Four Seasons Hotel. Sgt. S.R. Judy reported noticing an odor “associated with a clandestine laboratory,” according to the complaint filed in Randolph County Magistrate Court.

Later, two unidentified individuals told Judy that they had seen Hamrick carry a trash can from his apartment and hide it behind the building or in Roxie’s Tattoo Parlor and Piercings, where Hamrick reportedly worked as a manager, the complaint stated.

After obtaining consent from the parlor’s owner, Judy and Tpr. J.R. Wince of the West Virginia State Police searched the shop and found a backpack reportedly containing a box of Sudafed. Wince and Tpr. J.J. Cornelius searched a dumpster behind the former motel building and discovered what they believed to be a clandestine drug lab, the complaint stated.

Judy later obtained a search warrant for Hamrick’s apartment, and the search revealed items such as plastic tubing, propane, lighter fluid, digital scales, plastic bags and a receipt indicating the purchase of over-the-counter medication containing pseudoephedrine, the complaint stated.

The Elkins Police Department is continuing its investigation into the matter.

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