Big Stone Gap cop killer gets 2nd 100-year sentence

Michael Donivan White, the South Carolina man who pulled the trigger and killed Michael Chandler, a Big Stone Gap police officer, just got sentenced to another 100 years in prison.

A fatal call

Chandler was killed on November 13, 2021. Around 4 a.m. that morning, he responded to a welfare check at a place known locally as “the red house.” Virginia State Police said it was well known to law enforcement for civil disturbances, warrants, welfare checks, overdoses, assaults, and drug activity.

When Chandler arrived, he parked on the street, walked up to a car in the driveway, and knocked on the window with his flashlight. White, who was in the passenger seat, told his girlfriend, Misty Ward, to pull off because there were drugs in the car, and he wasn’t going back to jail.

Ward started moving the car, but then she stopped, and got out. White jumped over behind the wheel and tried to get away himself, but the car got stuck in the grass.

When Chandler approached, White fired eight times. Two hit the officer, including one shot in the abdomen just under his vest.

Officer Michael Chandler was also a member of the Big Stone Gap Volunteer Fire Department.
(Photo: Virginia Tech Police)

Chandler died later that day, which was his 29th birthday.

White fled the scene but was caught later that day at the Travel Inn in Kingsport, TN with the 9 mm that killed Chandler. at the Travel Inn in Kingsport

Federal charges

In June 2024, White pled guilty to federal charges in the case, including:

Causing the death of a person using a firearm, which killing was 1st degree murder, in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime
Conspiring to distribute or possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of meth
Using a place for the purpose of distributing or using a controlled substance
Using a communication facility in committing a felony-controlled substance offense
Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
Possession of a stolen firearm
Possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime
Using, brandishing and discharging that firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime.

Last month, February of 2025, he was sentenced to 100 years for those charges.

State charge

White also faced a state-level 1^st degree murder charge in Wise County. Today, March 13, he was hit with a second 100-year sentence.

No remorse

White was reportedly running a large-scale drug operation involving 18 other people and meth, heroin, and fentanyl. He continued in that operation even after he was arrested in this case, court documents show.

Authorities also outlined how White showed on remorse. To the contrary, when he was arrested, he told those officers, he told officers that “he should have shot them too.”

And according to Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, “recorded jail calls reinforced White’s complete lack of remorse.” In one call, he outright said, “I [have] no remorse for him… The man [Officer Chandler] knew when he picked up the gun and the badge he could die.”