All schools in Upshur County will close at 1 p.m. today. All B-UHS sporting events today are canceled.

Georgia man sentenced for drug distribution resulting in death

Court Judge Gavel

CLARKSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA – A Cartersville, Georgia, man was sentenced recently to federal prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation and the dismemberment of the body of a Fairmont woman to conceal her overdose death.

Seddrick Banks, age 30, was sentenced to 50 years in prison. During the June 2021 trial, the jury heard testimony that Banks trafficked and distributed more than 4.5 kilograms of methamphetamine, as well as cocaine hydrochloride and fentanyl, in Marion County and elsewhere. He would travel from Georgia to West Virginia, trafficking the drugs from different motel and hotel rooms and other locations. After a fentanyl overdose in a motel in Lewis County on August 9, 2018, Banks and a co-conspirator took the body of 20-year-old Courtney Dubois to Georgia, where they dismembered her and disposed of her body at a landfill.

The Greater Harrison Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force, a HIDTA-funded initiative; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Three Rivers Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force; the West Virginia State Police; The Bartow County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Office; the FBI in Rome, Georgia; and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigated.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brandon S. Flower and Andrew M. Cogar prosecuted the case on behalf of the government. 

Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Kleeh presided.

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