BY MIKE NOLTING
A Marion County man has been charged with being married to two women at the same time.
Deputies from the Taylor County Sheriff’s Department allege Christopher Carpenter, 28, of Mannington, committed bigamy, a felony in West Virginia.
Deputies said Carpenter was already married to a woman in Maryland when he married another woman in Marion County in March 2021.
The couple now lives in Taylor County.
Carpenter’s West Virginia wife suspected he was still married to a woman in Maryland and contacted Taylor County deputies for help. Deputies contacted authorities in Garrett County, Md., who verified Carpenter married the woman in Maryland in 2018 and the union was not officially dissolved until this past March.
Deputies did verify there was a divorce decree filed in Maryland on March 18, three years after his marriage to the woman in West Virginia.
Carpenter has been charged with felony bigamy, punishable by a maximum sentence of five years behind bars if convicted.
Carpenter is in the North Central Regional Jail, in lieu of a $5,000 bond.
