BELINGTON, W.Va. (WBOY) — A man has been charged after troopers found marijuana plants while responding to a call that shots had been fired at repossession agents in Barbour County.
It happened on Jan. 2 at a residence on Abilene Drive in Belington, according to a criminal complaint.
Responding West Virginia State Police Troopers learned that agents were attempting to repossess a Ford Econoline when Jason Lego, 43, of Belington, “exited the residence and discharged a firearm in the direction of the recovery agents,” troopers said.
Upon speaking with the victims, troopers learned that when the agents had attempted to move the van, Lego had exited the residence and “brandished a pistol” before he “fired 4-5 shots, some in the air, some toward the wood line and one shot in the direction of the recovery agents,” according to the complaint.
Once at the residence, troopers asked a resident to review a “DVR recording” of the incident, and while inside, they located “four 5-gallon buckets in a bathroom containing plants consistent with marijuana,” troopers said.
Later that day, Lego “willfully surrendered to law enforcement” and while speaking with troopers, he stated that “he woke up to two male subjects inside of the van in his driveway,” and that when they “did not identify themselves,” he “fired shots into the air,” according to the complaint.
Also during that conversation, Lego stated that “the marijuana plants in the bathroom were his and he had been growing them for approximately one month”; Lego also had a previous felony conviction which prohibited him from possessing a firearm, troopers said.
Lego has been charged with two counts of wanton endangerment and one count of cultivation of marijuana. He is being held in Tygart Valley Regional Jail on $63,000 bond.