A judge set a plea hearing date for next month in the case of a St. Albans man accused of manufacturing cocaine in a hidden room inside the basement of his home.
Prosecutors asked a judge last month to schedule a hearing for Christopher Ayash, 47, to plead guilty to firearms charges. U.S. District Court Judge John Copenhaver this week set an April 6 court date.
Prosecutors charged Ayash through an information document last month which typically signals a defendant has agreed to cooperate. He had been arrested and jailed on a criminal complaint filed against him last year, which accused him of manufacturing cocaine.
The information charges Ayash with knowingly possessing a firearm with an obliterated and altered serial number which had been shipped and transported in interstate commerce. He also is charged with the possession of six firearms "in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime [manufacturing cocaine] for which the defendant may be prosecuted," the charging document states.