Read the criminal complaint.

Shawn Thomas Lester, 35, of Charleston, was charged with first- and second-degree murder in the death of Jeanie Patton, 31, according to court records.

A criminal complaint by Charleston Police Detective J.A. Hackney alleges that a long-time friend of Lester told police that Lester admitted that he killed Patton in August 2003 in retaliation for the theft of a big-block Chevrolet motor from a garage on Rutledge Road in Charleston.

Lester was arrested and arraigned on Thursday and is being held at the South Central Regional Jail. Records indicate police gathered new information in witness interviews, conducted Tuesday and Wednesday.

At an 11 a.m. press conference on Thursday, Charleston Police Chief Brent Webster, Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford and Kanawha County prosecutor Mark Plants all said the investigation was still very active and gave few details as to what they were working on.

"We are very, very happy to make an arrest in this case," Webster said. "We've all been working on this together."

Plants said there were a number of developments in the case in recent weeks, and that Lester had been known to investigators very early on.

Patton and Okey Meadows Jr., 26, were killed on Aug. 14, 2003, outside separate rural convenience stores. Both lived in the Campbells Creek area. A third person, Gary Carrier Jr., had been killed by a shooter a few days earlier, on Aug. 10, outside a Charleston convenience store.

The deaths drew national attention because they came a year after a series of sniper shootings at convenience stores in the Washington, D.C., area.

According to a police statement attached to the complaint, Lester told his friend, Sam Ranson, that the motor had been packed with "a large amount of methamphetamine for which Lester was responsible" and that the motor was stolen by Patton and Marty Walker.

Lester allegedly told Ranson that the drugs had been supplied by "a Mexican national named 'Tito,' also identified as Gilberto Lopez-Reyna," according to the police statement.

"Lester told Ranson that Patton was shot because of the theft of the drugs," the statement said.

Patton's family declined comment when contacted by phone Thursday.

Patton's father, Rodney "Larry" Patton, had been outspoken for years about the investigation. In December 2003, four months after the killings, he rented a billboard on the westbound side of U.S. 60, near the mouth of Campbells Creek.

The sign featured Jeanie Patton's picture, along with information about the $100,000 reward offered by police.

Okey Meadows Sr. said he was surprised when he learned about the arrest early Thursday.

"I'm still waiting to see how this affects my son's case," he said. "I'm curious to see if it was a random shooting or what."

In 2003, investigators told the Gazette that the same weapon was used to kill Patton and Meadows, who were both gunned down about an hour and 10 miles apart. They also said the same weapon was used to kill Carrier four days earlier.

Kanawha County Chief Deputy Phil Morris said at the time that lab reports showed the bullets were determined to have been fired from the same weapon.

Meadows said Thursday that his son was at a girlfriend's house and no one knew what time he was leaving, or that he would be stopping at the gas station.

"They would have had to have been a well organized machine to have that happen. And I just don't think these guys were smart enough or organized enough," he said.

Meadows said he was grateful that investigators kept an open mind about what happened that night.

"Some of them [the investigators] were set on believing it was Brian Caldwell," he said. "I'm thankful that the police kept continuing to keep an open mind and pursue other avenues."

Caldwell was named as "a person of interest" in the case, and was sent to prison on a gun-related charge in 2005.

The police statement attached to the latest criminal complaint also cites information provided to police by Sandra Shaffer, who told investigators that Lester came to her home near Sissonville and asked if he could hide on her property "because someone had broken into his garage and stolen 'the engine and the dope.'

"Lester told the Shaffers that he needed to hide because someone was 'after him' due to the theft of the drugs," the police statement said.

Shaffer owns personal property at 7626 Hughart Drive, according to Kanawha County property tax records. Records also show real estate at the same address in the name of Sandra Shaffer and Rodney P. Shaffer, which is the name of both her son and her deceased husband.

Plants would not say if the digging police were conducting on a piece of property off Hughart Drive near Sissonville was connected to the case.

"I can't talk about it or I might be thrown in jail by the judge," the prosecutor said.

The statement indicates that police learned from another witness in 2007 that Lester had obtained a rifle and bragged that a friend should "Read the paper tomorrow" because "You're gonna see, it's gonna say, 'Lester the Gas Station Sniper.'"

Lester has a long criminal history in the area. He was convicted of a felony -- grand larceny -- in 1994.

He later escaped from the back seat of a State Police cruiser in Kanawha City in 2000 while police searched his apartment. Police said they found heroin, drug paraphernalia and shotguns in the apartment. Lester turned himself in after 11 days on the lam.

In 2001, he was charged with domestic battery, refusing to provide fingerprints and resisting arrest.

In 2009, he was charged with armed robbery in Kanawha County after allegedly telling a convenience store clerk that he had a gun and wanted the money in the cash register. But, according to news reports from the time, Lester became flustered when a customer came in and he ended up using his debit card to buy a soft drink. The receipt easily led police to Lester.

Staff writer Zac Taylor contributed to this report.