BY RACHEL DOVE
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — A man indicted in Martin County in February 2021 was extradited to Kentucky last week to face felony drugs and firearms charges.
Steve “Pete” Hackney, 60, was brought back to Kentucky Aug. 17 after serving a 13-month sentence in the Salem Correctional Facility in Industrial, W.Va., for a 2021 drug conviction in Mingo County.
Following his arrest in October 2020 in a drug bust on Riverfront Road in Lovely, Hackney fled Martin County to the other side of the river. His indictment followed, as did revocation of his probation in a 2019 conviction.
Hackney spent a couple of months living in a camper on Goodman Hollow on the outskirts of Williamson.
Acting on a tip, Mingo County deputies discovered his hiding place in April 2021 and served him with the fugitive from justice warrant from Martin County. The officers found Hackney with an undisclosed amount of drugs and cash and charged him with crimes in West Virginia.
“We had to wait our turn to bring the defendant back to Kentucky to stand trial on the seven original charges since Mingo County charged him with crimes when they took him into custody for us,” Martin County Sheriff John Kirk explained. “That’s the way the extradition process works.”
Hackney’s arrests in Martin County go back to July 3, 2019, when he was taken into custody for trafficking in a controlled substance and possession of a firearm by a felon. The trafficking charge was amended to possession, and Hackney pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years of supervised probation.
His probation was revoked after his arrest in October 2020.
Hackney will face one count each possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (methamphetamine), first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (cocaine), first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (less than 2 grams methamphetamine), second-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (less than 20 units drug unspecified, Schedule 3), and third-degree trafficking in controlled substance third degree (more than 30 units drug unspecified).
Hackney has a long history of drug arrests.
In 2010, he was one of four people arrested in Pike County for bringing large amounts of prescription pills into eastern Kentucky from Florida. During his arrest, deputies raided Hackney’s home and seized hundreds of pills, including Roxycontin and Xanax, $17,000 in cash, and numerous guns. Hackney was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison.