A Conover man has been sentenced to a prison term of six to eight years for drug charges, including trafficking in fentanyl, following a jury trial. Jordan Ashlee Abernathy, 47, was also ordered to pay a $500,000 fine when he was found guilty on multiple offenses. His conviction stems from a February 2023 traffic stop where a K-9 unit alerted officers to the presence of drugs, as reported by the District Attorney's Office.
The search that followed the K-9 alert resulted in the discovery of a pencil box between Abernathy's seat and the car door containing drug paraphernalia. Inside the box, law enforcement found syringes, Narcan, digital scales, and several bags of substances, including pills and powder identified by the State Crime Lab as a trafficking amount of fentanyl. In a statement by the QC News, the jury took about an hour to reach a guilty verdict yesterday, Dec. 3.
The trial, which concluded in Catawba County Superior Court, was overseen by Judge Peter Knight of Henderson County. A duo from the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office, Brittany Weaver and Alec Blackwood, handled the investigation that led to Abernathy's arrest and subsequent trial. Assistant District Attorney Melanie Earles prosecuted the case for the State, as detailed by a local publication.
Abernathy, who was a passenger in the vehicle during the incriminating traffic stop, will serve his sentence in the custody of the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections. The substances found at the scene of the traffic stop included a variety of drugs sufficient to categorize the possession as traffic-level fentanyl trafficking. Per WHKY, legal assistance for the prosecution was provided by Jordan Arney during the judicial proceedings.
