'Dollar Bill' pleads guilty in federal drug case

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - A man serving a 10-year-sentence for a brutal drug-related assault in Ross County may get another 20 years in a federal drug trafficking case.

Ernest "Dollar Bill" Moore III, 40, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of conspiracy to distribute heroin in relation to an investigation of drug trafficking between Gallipolis and Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 2013 and 2014. The plea came a day before Moore's trial was set to begin in federal court in Huntington, West Virginia.

Moore will be sentenced in the case May 30 after a pre-sentencing investigation has been completed. According to the written plea agreement, the maximum sentence Moore could get includes 20 years in prison, a $1 million fine, and at least three years of supervision upon release. The agreement indicates Moore would cooperate with law enforcement in relations to the investigation and be provided limited immunity.

According to court records, Moore appears to have been the ringleader in relation to selling heroin at a rate of $200 a gram out of a home on Ohio 588 in Gallipolis in 2013 and 2014. A woman renting the home, who has not been indicted in federal court, had agreed to let Moore, Anthony Latham, Rasheed Latham, Kaleigh Horn and Antoine Terry sell heroin from her home.

'Dolla Bill' enters plea in kidnapping case

Both Lathams, Horn and Terry apparently worked for Moore, taking calls from people in Point Pleasant for orders of heroin, and sometimes delivering it to them, according to court records. On several occasions between April 29, 2014 and June 11, 2014, Moore or one of his associates sold heroin to a confidential informant who was working with the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team. The informant placed the orders from Point Pleasant and picked up the heroin at the Gallipolis home.

According to stipulated facts in Moore's written plea, the drugs came from Moore's associates in Columbus and Detroit. His Gallipolis partners already have been sentenced, with the exception of Terry whose case was dismissed without prejudice in October.

Both Lathams were sentenced to nearly four years while Horn was sentenced to three years and two months. All three also were ordered to pay a $100 mandatory assessment and will be under supervision for three years after their release.

Moore has been in an Ohio prison since he was sentenced in July to 10 years on charges of kidnapping and felonious assault. The charges stemmed from a July 2015 incident where Moore and two others had tortured a man for six hours over a drug debt.