A former Martinsville doctor was convicted on 467 federal charges of drug distribution, according to the U.S Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Virginia.

ABINGDON, Va. - A Virginia doctor who prosecutors said ran his medical practice like an interstate drug distribution ring was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in prison for illegally prescribing opioids. Dr. Joel Smithers, of Greensboro, North Carolina, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Abingdon. Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Day Rottenborn said Judge James Jones sentenced Smithers to 40 years. Authorities say Smithers prescribed more than 500,000 doses of opioids to patients from Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee while based in Martinsville, Virginia, from 2015 to 2017. Smithers, 36, a married father of five, testified that he was a caring doctor who was deceived by some of his patients.

John Moore/Getty ImagesMARTINSVILLE, Va. - A Virginia doctor convicted in May of illegally prescribing more than half a million opioid tablets will be sentenced to federal prison Wednesday. Joel Smithers, who was convicted of 859 counts of illegally prescribing drugs, faces between 20 years and life in prison, the US Department of Justice said in a news release. Smithers prescribed more than 500,000 opioid tablets in 19 months before federal agents arrived at his Martinsville office in March 2017 with a search warrant, prosecutors said. A woman from West Virginia died after Smithers prescribed her oxycodone and oxymorphone, the Justice Department said. Every day, more than 130 people in the United States die from opioid overdoses, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Here's a look at some of the stories we'll be following today as they make headlines across the country and Southwest Virginia. Eight firefighters from Roanoke County will be heading to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial today. Every October the memorial foundation sponsors a national tribute to firefighters who died in the line of duty. Sentencing takes place today on for the former Martinsville doctor convicted of drug charges. The Roanoke City School Board will meet in closed session today.

At trial, one woman who described herself as an addict compared Smithers' practice to pill mills she frequented in Florida. When area pharmacists started refusing to fill prescriptions written by Smithers, he directed patients to far-flung pharmacies, including two in West Virginia. At his trial, Smithers portrayed himself as a caring doctor who was deceived by some patients. Some of Smithers' patients have remained fiercely loyal to him, insisting their severe chronic pain was eased by the powerful painkillers he prescribed. Lennie Hartshorn Jr., the father of the West Virginia woman who died two days after taking drugs Smithers prescribed, testified for the defense.