31-year-old Tyler Austin Patterson of Claremont, was sentenced to serve six to eight years in prison following his conviction for trafficking fentanyl by possession and transportation during Catawba County Superior Court on Thursday (June 4).

The Honorable Athena F. Brooks, Superior Court Judge from Henderson County, imposed terms of the active sentence. Patterson entered a guilty plea to the trafficking charge filed by the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office.

He also entered guilty pleas to charges from Maiden Police Department that included maintaining a vehicle for a controlled substance, selling a Schedule II controlled substance, maintaining a place for using/keeping/selling a controlled substance, possession of Schedule II controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

On September 15, 2025, deputies conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle occupied by Patterson and a co-defendant for speeding and failure to maintain lane control.

During a search of the defendant, deputies found 27.6 grams of fentanyl from Patterson’s pocket. He told deputies that he and the co-defendant had bought the fentanyl and were smoking it. The State Crime Lab confirmed the drugs recovered to be a trafficking amount of fentanyl.

Tyler Burgess handled the investigation for the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office. David Lee and Xavier McMurtry investigated the cases for Maiden Police Department. Assistant District Attorney Howard Wellons prosecuted the matter for the State with aid from Legal Assistant Meredith Scott.