South Charleston Man sentenced to 30 years for soliciting sex from a minor

On Thursday, 44-year-old Chad Michael White received consecutive sentences totaling more than thirty years for soliciting, traveling and engaging in sexual contact with a teenager.

LOGAN A Kanawha County man was sentenced in Logan County Circuit Court to thirty years on charges of soliciting a minor for sex.

According to the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office, 44-year-old Chad Michael White, of South Charleston, previously pleaded guilty to a charge of Soliciting a Minor and Traveling to Engage the Minor in Prohibited Sexual Activity and a charge of Use of Minors in Filming Sexually Explicit Conduct. On Thursday, Judge Kelli Codispoti handed down the sentence.

On the charge of filming minors, White received ten years in prison. White also will serve twenty years in prison for soliciting and traveling to have sex with a minor. The sentences are to run consecutively, or one right after the other. He will also serve two to ten years for additional evidence discovered on his cell phone and was additionally charged in Wood County.

According to court records, White traveled from Marmet in a rented U-Haul to pick up the minor at her residence on February 23, 2023. Prosecutors say that White drove the 15-year-old victim to the Chapmanville park and ride. The charges stem from White recording with his cell phone his sexual contact with the child on a bean bag in the back of the truck.

“It was a tremendous investigation by Trooper Bowling,” Logan County Prosecuting Attorney David Wandling said. “I can’t compliment him enough.”

Wandling said they were not confident, at the beginning of the investigation, they could come up with the defendant’s identity. He said state police identified White using facial recognition technology.

“Bowling used extraordinary efforts, some new technologies, was able to identify White and tracked him to Wood County,” Wandling said.

Corporal S. P.  Bowling and Sergeant S. A. Hatten tracked the truck to a rental agreement in the defendant’s name. Moreover, the bean bag was recovered with DNA matching White.

“Assuming that he gets released, which he will one day unfortunately, he will be under the court’s supervision for the rest of his life essentially.”  Wandling said White will be on supervised release after he serves the next thirty years or so in prison. White must register as a sex offender.

PHOTO | WVRJA