See prison on Page A7

ELKINS — A Pennsylvania man was sentenced this week to one to three years in prison after passing several fraudulent checks at local banks in 2024.

Gary Michael Mitchell, 43, was sentenced by Randolph County Circuit Court Judge David Wilmoth for one count of attempt to commit uttering, a felony, to no less than one, no more than three years in prison, and restitution in the amount of $4,185.14.

On Jan. 13, Mitchell accepted a plea agreement and pleaded guilty to one count of attempt to commit uttering.

He was initially indicted in October on one count of uttering, and one count of obtaining money, property and services by false pretenses, both felonies.

Before sentencing this week, Mitchell’s attorney, Morris Davis, addressed the court, asking that Wilmoth look back on how Mitchell “found himself to be here.”

“Again, your honor, Mr. Mitchell was approached by a couple of gentlemen in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who asked him to cash what he believed to be some payroll checks for another individual so that they could get paid,” Davis told the court.

“You have to understand where Mr. Mitchell was at. He is not the most sophisticated party, and at the time when he was approached by these two gentlemen… he didn’t really have much going on, so he saw an opportunity to make some money. Probably should have been a little more critical of this opportunity, but he wasn’t.”

Davis asked the court to sentence Mitchell to an alternative sentence with the State of Pennsylvania ordered to continue supervising him, and “force” Mitchell to do “some things that he should already be doing,” like finding a job.

Mitchell also addressed the court, apologizing first for missing a previous court date, explaining that he missed it due to his brother not wanting to give him a ride. Mitchell also said he wanted to be more responsible for himself and called the crime he committed “dumb” and that he had been “desperate” at the time.

“I want to do better with my life,” Mitchell told the court. “Never want to do anything like this again, this kind of financial crime. It was very dumb, what I did. I should have been more skeptical of what I was doing with these people… I was stupid and desperate, and that’s why I did it.”

Mitchell argued that, other than missing that one court date, he had been very compliant with the court.

Before sentencing Mitchell, Wilmoth stated that there were actually several instances where the court and community corrections were unable to get a response from Mitchell, including the missed court date. Wilmoth also took issue with Mitchell not taking responsibility for anything, including past actions outside of West Virginia.

“All I’ve heard, since this hearing started, is how none of this is your fault,” Wilmoth told Mitchell. “That you were taken advantage of, your brother didn’t take care of you, you don’t have a phone that works. All I’ve heard is, ‘This is the first time I’ve done anything like this and I’ll never do it again,’ but I looked through your presentence report, I see that you’ve got a long history of drug addiction in Pennsylvania. I see that you have active warrants in other jurisdictions. I see you’ve got a ‘failure to appear’… in Texas, and I see you have unpaid fines and restitutions.”

According to a criminal complaint filed in Randolph County Magistrate Court by West Virginia State Police Corporal D.R. Wolford Jr., on Jan. 11, 2024 the officer was notified of an uttering and fraudulent schemes complaint at the Grant County Bank in Harman.

The officer met with the assistant branch manager at the bank on Jan. 4. The officer was told that Mitchell entered the bank and cashed a Grant County Bank check on an account in a different name in the amount of $4,185.14, to be paid to Mitchell, the complaint states. The assistant manager checked the available funds and verified the signature via the signature card.

The bank employee attempted to make small talk with Mitchell but could not get any detailed information from him, according to the complaint. The bank later found the check to be fraudulent and that Mitchell had allegedly cashed similar checks at the Grant County Bank branches in Davis, Canaan Valley, Harman, Riverton and Petersburg.

“By the time Mitchell attempted the same transaction at the Moorefield Branch, the bank had caught onto the scam, confronted Mitchell and he left the Moorefield Branch leaving the check on the counter,” the complaint states.

Wolford viewed the video surveillance still frames of the suspect leaving the bank, and Mitchell was identified by matching the video to the photograph on file with the Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles.