On Wednesday, Michael Donivan White, a 36-year-old South Carolina man, pled guilty to eight federal charges linked to the murder of Michael Chandler, a Big Stone Gap Police Officer.
Chandler was killed in the line of duty on November 13 at 2505 Orr Street. That location, referred to locally as “the red house,” was well-known to police who were dispatched there for civil disturbances, warrants, welfare checks, overdoses, assaults, and drug-related activities, according to Virginia State Police.
On the morning he was killed, Chandler was dispatched to the red house for a welfare check. Federal court documents show it was just after 4 a.m. when he parked his patrol vehicle on the street, approached a Sonata sitting in the driveway, and knocked on the window with his flashlight.
Three people were in the vehicle, the documents show. White was on the front passenger side, his girlfriend Misty Ward was in the driver’s seat, and Lucy Vanover, a woman who came to buy meth, was in the back.
White admitted that when Chandler came to the car, he told Ward to pull off because there were drugs in the car and he didn’t want to go back to jail.
She began moving the vehicle, but then stopped, and got out, court documents show.
White admitted that he jumped in the driver’s seat, attempted to turn the car around to leave, but got stuck in the grass.
He also admitted when Chandler approached the driver’s side window, he fired eight shots from a Taurus 9 mm he knew was stolen.
Court documents show two of those bullets hit Chandler. One went into his wrist and forearm. The other, which forensics deemed to be the kill shot, hit him in the abdomen just below his bulletproof vest.
White, Ward, and Vanover left the scene. Chandler died later that day at Johnson City Medical Center.
White admitted he caught a ride to Tennesee. He was captured by authorities at the Travel Inn in Kingsport.
Yesterday, White pled guilty to :
- 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.
“While nothing we do in a courtroom can ever bring Michael back, our hope is that today’s guilty plea brings some semblance of peace to his family, friends, and brethren in law enforcement that today, justice was done,” said United States Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh.
White is scheduled for sentencing in November in Abigdon.
“At the core of this tragic event is a previously convicted felon getting illegal access to a firearm,” said ATF Washington Field Division Special Agent in Charge Craig Kailimai. “It is our hope that Mr. White receives a lengthy sentence that holds him accountable for every one of his criminal acts.”
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