WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE — A 42-year-old Washington C.H. woman has been sentenced to 38 to 43-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty in two separate major drug cases.

On Feb. 26, Brandi Wood pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated drug trafficking, along with a count of engaging in corrupt activity. Wood was then sentenced to 27 to 32-and-a-half years in prison in addition to the 11 years from her prior convictions.

The prior aggravated drug charge dates back to just a couple weeks earlier.

On Feb. 13, at the conclusion of a jury trial in Fayette County Common Pleas Court, Wood was found guilty of one count of aggravated possession of drugs, a first-degree felony. The jury further found that the amount of methamphetamine Wood was in possession of equaled or exceeded 100 times the bulk amount.

Along with her prison sentence, Judge David Bender also found that Wood, of 555 Depot Drive Unit 53, is a “major drug offender” due to the amount of meth that was confiscated.

The morning began when Wood walked into the courtroom with a new defense attorney, Kathryn Hapner, who was originally set as Wood’s back-up attorney for the trial.

At her plea hearing back on Jan. 22, Wood expressed to the court her concerns regarding her attorney, and requested to remove her counsel in order to represent herself moving forward with the trial. The court approved of this request made by Wood, with the understanding that it is her right to have an attorney represent her during the trial. Wood told the court that she would have a back-up attorney available on the date of her trial.

This case dates back to April of 2023, when Wood was initially arrested for aggravated trafficking of drugs.

The events of Wood’s arrest were reexamined during the trial as the officer who made Wood’s arrest, Fayette County Sheriff’s Office Det. Treg Brown, was cross-examined by both the prosecuting attorney and the defense team.

During Brown’s cross-examination, the state provided physical evidence, as well as photos taken by Brown himself, which he was able to identify in front of the jury. The photos provided by the state showed the baggies containing white substances with weights written on them, and were confirmed by Brown to be the alleged baggies found within Wood’s safe, which was hidden in her one bedroom apartment, at the foot of her bed.

Additionally, the state provided video evidence of Brown questioning Wood. The state, as well as Brown, claimed that in the video, Wood acknowledged that she knew of the substances as well as their specific weights which were hidden in the safe.

Hapner, at Wood’s defense, argued that the audio projected from the video evidence was not clear enough for the jury to understand, and that the given evidence was only based on Brown’s word that those statements were made and acknowledged in the video.

Brown agreed that the audio was difficult to process, but told the court that the jury would, in fact, be able to access the video and hear the audio for themselves, and at that point, they may be able to make a clear, final judgment.

It was later on in the day that based on all of the evidence provided, the jury found Wood guilty.