A student had told a staff member that another student learned of an alleged threat of violence against the school at 4 p.m., University President Ed Welch said.

Students were told by email to stay in class while Charleston police investigated. Police talked to students allegedly involved and learned that no one made threats. No one was in danger and no one was arrested. Students were given the all clear to leave their classes about 15 minutes later.

Welch credited staff and police for rapidly responding.

Justin Lee Brafford, 31, was charged with grand larceny for allegedly stealing $1,300 cash from Lewie's video lottery parlor on U.S. 60 in St. Albans on March 15, according to Capt. James Agee of the St. Albans Police Department.

Brafford is already in jail for an allegedly robbing three other gaming parlors in Kanawha and Putnam counties Sunday and Monday. He was arrested on Monday after he allegedly robbed Kelly's Café in Jefferson, one of three video lottery parlors Brafford allegedly hit overnight.

In that robbery, Brafford allegedly told the clerk he had a gun. He was later found in Nitro, where police allegedly found a large amount of money, a semiautomatic pistol and camoflage clothing.

West Virginia State Police arrested 21-year-old Stephanie Ann Parks earlier this month and charged her with delivery of a controlled substance.

Cpl. I.M. Harmon tells The Dominion Post that he and Trooper A.R. Leach saw drug paraphernalia in Parks' Reedsville home when they visited her on March 12. The troopers went to Parks' home to deliver a subpoena for the Pennsylvania State Police related to a hearing for 23-year-old Timothy Adam White of Morgantown.

White is charged with stealing a car with Parks' daughter inside from a gas station in Reedsville on Feb. 8. The girl was found unharmed about four hours later at a home in Richeyville, Pa.

The stolen items include $21,000 worth of instruments belonging to the Lincoln County High School marching band.

Media outlets report that 31-year-old Justin Brafford is charged with three counts of felony grand larceny and one count of petit larceny.

A criminal complaint alleges that Brafford broke into a box trailer containing the band's instruments while it was parked at a motel.

West Virginia State Police arrested 21-year-old Stephanie Ann Parks earlier this month and charged her with delivery of a controlled substance.

Cpl. I.M. Harmon tells The Dominion Post that he and Trooper A. R. Leach saw drug paraphernalia in Parks' Reedsville home when they visited her on March 12. The troopers went to Parks' home to deliver a subpoena for the Pennsylvania State Police related to a hearing for 23-year-old Timothy Adam White of Morgantown.

White is charged with stealing a car with Parks' daughter inside from a gas station in Reedsville on Feb. 8. The girl was found unharmed about four hours later at a home in Richeyville, Pa.

The West Virginia State Police has charged Donald William Book, 75, with two counts of grand larceny and two counts of receiving or transferring stolen goods.

The Exponent-Telegram said Book was freed on $10,000 bail after an appearance Tuesday morning in Harrison County Magistrate Court.

Defense lawyer Jerry Blair asked the court to consider his client's age and long, productive career.

Kimberly West

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County sheriff's deputies have issued an arrest warrant for a woman suspected of robbing a Dunbar video lottery parlor at gunpoint over the weekend.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Kimberly Ann West, also known as Kimberly Ann Vest, 31, according to Cpl. Brian Humphreys of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.

Deputies believe West went into Ivy's Video Lottery Parlor at 4340 Washington Street West near Dunbar about 9:15 p.m. Sunday, pulled a black handgun and demanded money from the register before getting away.

Myra Miller pleaded guilty to conspiring to misuse the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration registration number of Dr. William Ryckman, a physician at the Mountain Medical Care Center in Williamson.

Ryckman was faxed a blank prescription sheet in February 2010, which he then signed and faxed back, Miller said. Clinic staff later made copies, filled them out for people who were never evaluated by him, and faxed them to drug stores. Miller estimated the clinic sent out between 36 and 50 such sheets on that occasion, with prescriptions for one to three people on each.

Ulysses Everett will receive $200,000 from the settlement.

Everett's attorney, John Bryan, told The Journal that he and his client are happy with the settlement.

The federal lawsuit alleged that Deputy S.A. Place used excessive forced when he fired twice through Everett's front door while responding to a domestic-disturbance report. One of the bullets struck Everett in the hip and the other struck him in the abdomen.

Jonathan Edward Kirk

Jonathan Edward Kirk, 34, of Walton, was arrested Monday after an investigation into his work at Pikeview High School in Princeton, where he has been a teacher and assistant boys basketball coach since 2010, State Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Baylous said.

Kirk allegedly fondled several female students and used social media and text messages to send them sexual images, Baylous said. At least 12 victims came forward and Baylous said there could be more.

Kirk was charged with four counts of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian, five counts of soliciting a minor via computer, three counts of using obscene material with the intent to seduce a minor, three counts of the use of a minor to film sexually explicit conduct and three counts of distribution and displaying obscene material to a minor. Additional charges could be filed, as well, Baylous said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County sheriff's deputies arrested a man in connection with the early-Monday armed robbery of a Jefferson video lottery parlor and were looking for a woman in connection with a second video parlor robbery that took place Sunday night on Washington Street West near Charleston.

The Kelly's Café robbery in Jefferson was one of three gambling parlor robberies that happened in Kanawha and Putnam counties late Sunday and early Monday, all within a few hours of each other.

Investigators were looking for connections Monday among the crimes.

State police Cpl. K.A. Corley says the leads came from citizens after The Inter-Mountain published an article last November on the three-year anniversary of Pam Judy's death.

Corley tells the newspaper that the Elkins detachment has received numerous calls in response to the article. He encourages citizens who might have any information to contact state police.

Judy was last seen around 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 12, 2009, in her black truck at an insurance firm's office. Ninety minutes later, a hunter called the Randolph County E-911 Center to report a burning truck in the forest.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Authorities are searching for a woman who they say robbed a video game parlor at gunpoint.

An employee at Ivy's Video Parlor at 4360 Washington St. W. called dispatchers at about 9:15 p.m. Sunday and said the woman had gotten away with about $100.

The employee told Kanawha County Sheriff's Deputy J.T. Snyder that the woman came in and played one of the lottery games for several minutes before going to the restroom, then coming back with a black handgun, according to a news release from the Sheriff's Department. The woman told the employee to tell her how to open the cash register, then took the money.

The fire broke out shortly after 6 p.m. at 415 A Dupont Ave. in Nitro, according to Kanawha County Metro 911 dispatchers.

Paramedics transported one person to the hospital, but dispatchers were not sure of the extent of the person's injuries.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Police at the Capitol are investigating possible threats against lawmakers over pending gun legislation.

Senate Government Organization Chairman Herb Snyder said Senate offices have fielded hundreds of phone calls and emails from gun-rights supporters.

Many of these supporters are urging Senate action on a bill passed Monday by the House that would repeal gun control ordinances for a handful of cities.

Adam Lee Arnold is charged with domestic assault and domestic battery.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Charleston man was arrested Thursday after police said he tried to tie his girlfriend's hands to prevent her from leaving.

Kanawha County Metro 911 dispatchers got a cellphone call from a woman screaming for help; a man's voice was heard in the background allegedly threatening her. Dispatchers traced the call to 205 A Dorfer Drive, near Mink Shoals, and deputies arrived there at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Kanawha County Sheriff's Cpl. Brian Humphreys said the woman, Stacey Ann Schoolcraft, was outside and had minor injuries to her chest and arms. Schoolcraft told deputies she wanted to leave but her live-in boyfriend, Adam Lee Arnold, parked his car behind hers.

Fayette County sheriff's deputies are searching for Stephen Paul Cool II, 27, wanted in connection with methamphetamine charges.

FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. -- Fayette County sheriff's deputies are searching for a man wanted in connection with methamphetamine charges.

Stephen Paul Cool II, 27, is a fugitive wanted for attempting to operate a meth lab, a felony, Sheriff Steve Kessler said in a news release Friday.

Cool is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs approximately 175 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. His last known address is in Danese.

Officials and lawyers for the Division of Juvenile Services expected to outline their plan for Salem's Industrial Home for Youth on Friday to Circuit Judge Omar Aboulhosn. The judge is overseeing the lawsuit and previously agreed with many of its allegations. Officials also planned to brief Salem staff about the proposal today.

"It certainly addresses the concerns in the lawsuit, at least we believe it does,'' Military Affairs and Public Safety Secretary Joe Thornton told The Associated Press ahead of the court hearing.

Under the plan, the 49 juveniles now in Salem's main building would move to other agency-run facilities. That would likely fill up remaining beds at those facilities, said Thornton, whose department includes Juvenile Services as well as the Division of Corrections and the regional jails.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Five Martinsburg police officers are on paid administrative leave while West Virginia State Police investigate the fatal shooting of a Virginia man who allegedly stabbed one officer.

Media outlets said police shot Wayne Arnold Jones, 50, of Stephens City, Va., Wednesday night after he ignored orders to drop a knife he pulled on the officers. They had stopped him as he walked on a city street, but the reason was not immediately clear.

Jones told the officers he had a weapon but wouldn't say what it was, police said, and he grew angry and refused their subsequent orders. He fled into a doorway, and the officers pursued.

Just before 4 a.m. Thursday, deputies checked on a reported robbery at the Go-Mart along U.S. 60 near Alloy, Fayette Sheriff Steve Kessler said in a news release.

The store's clerk said a man came to the outside after-hours window and asked for two cartons of cigarettes. When the clerk placed the cigarettes on the sliding drawer, the man allegedly pulled out a handgun and demanded money, more cigarettes and blunt cigars.

The clerk put the money and tobacco into a bag and gave it to the man through the drawer, Kessler said. The suspect ran toward Gauley Bridge, where a truck possibly picked him up.

 Emmanuel Green and Leonard Higginbotham each face charges of first-degree robbery. Police say they tried to hold up Eddie's Market in Bradley on March 8.

Both men also face charges of conspiracy to commit a felony, and child neglect with risk of injury. Reports at the time of the robbery said there was a baby in the back seat of the car when the would-be robbers fled.

Media outlets report that a federal grand jury indicted 28-year-old Tiffani Michelle Petry on 22 embezzlement counts on Wednesday.

She is accused of embezzling the money between July 2011 and July 2012.

Petry is scheduled to stand trial in May.

The remains found Jan. 16 in Wayne Township, Pa., have been confirmed as those of 16-year-old Skylar Neese of Star City, said U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld, top prosecutor for West Virginia's Northern District.

The FBI is doing tests on her remains, Ihlenfeld said, and an investigation into her death is underway.

An honors student at University High in Morgantown, Neese was last seen on surveillance video leaving her family's apartment July 6, and getting into a car. The Greene County location where she was found is less than 30 miles from there.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Charleston man allegedly involved in a payback shooting over the weekend faces three felony charges.

Robert Jared Smith, 34, of Mathews Avenue on the city's West Side, was arrested Monday and charged with malicious wounding, wanton endangerment with a firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to a criminal complaint on file in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

Police say Smith shot Andre Williamson, 25, of Lawndale Lane, in the leg outside The Seoul of Charleston restaurant on West Washington Street on Saturday, triggering a hail of gunfire from at least three weapons. About 60 rounds were fired in all.

Shaina Nicole Tenney (left) and her infant daughter, Grace Tenney

State authorities issued an Amber Alert for Shaina Nicole Tenney and her 7-month-old daughter, Grace Tenney, of Rock Cave on Tuesday night.

Margel Franklin Tenney, Shaina Tenney's stepfather, was under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of another young relative. Police said Tenney, 57, took his stepdaughter and her baby after troopers interviewed him Tuesday. 

First Sgt. Mark Sanders of the State Police detachment in Glenville said a trooper from the Buckhannon detachment spotted Margel Tenney's gold-colored 2003 Ford Taurus heading south on Interstate 79 at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Gary May was sentenced in January to 21 months in prison on a conspiracy charge for his actions at the former Massey Energy Co.'s Upper Big Branch Mine.

May, 44, of Bloomingrose pleaded guilty last year to charges that he defrauded the federal government with actions that included disabling a methane gas monitor and falsifying records.

May has cooperated with prosecutors in their continuing criminal investigation of the worst U.S. coal mining disaster in 40 years and testified at the sentencing of former Massey security chief Hughie Stover.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The father of a West Liberty University cheerleader filed a complaint with the Charleston police chief, accusing officers of using excessive force when they responded to an incident at the Embassy Suites hotel earlier this month.

On March 4, Charles Haggerty wrote in an email to Chief Brent Webster that police "entered the hotel brandishing batons ... and wearing leather gloves prepared for an altercation."

"Their use of profanity, especially the 'F' word, the pointing of fingers in peoples chests and threatening people with being 'slammed' was absolutely uncalled for and took the situation to the level it resulted in."

The coal truck rolled over on East Dupont Avenue near the London Post Office at about 9:45 a.m., according to a Kanawha County Metro 911 dispatcher.

The truck landed near railroad tracks and, as a precaution, Norfolk Southern was notified to stop traffic in the area, according to dispatchers. Crews cleared the roadway and it was reopened at 2 p.m.

Billy Joe Gill of Hinton is charged with two counts of first-degree arson and two counts of attempted murder.

Summers County Prosecutor Amy Mann told The Register-Herald that Circuit Judge Robert Irons denied a defense request last week for a change of venue.

However, Mann said the case could be moved to Monroe County if a jury can't be seated in Summers County. Both counties are part of the 31st Judicial Circuit.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston Police arrested a man and charged him in connection to a shooting outside a restaurant on Washington Street West early Saturday morning. The initial shooting led to more than 60 bullets being fired from at least three different guns, police said. 

Robert Jared Smith was arrested Monday in connection to the shooting of Andre Williamson, 25, outside The Seoul of Charleston, a Korean restaurant, near the intersection of Washington Street West and Stockton Street. Williamson was shot in the leg.  

Ciera Leftwich, 22, was also shot in the leg. She could not identify the person who shot her, which led police to believe she was not involved in the incident.  

Alcohol Beverage Control Administration spokesman Gig Robinson tells the Charleston Daily Mail that the stepped-up enforcement is part of a multi-agency effort to reduce drunken driving and underage drinking during the spring.

The Governor's Highway Safety Program has provided grant funds to the ABCA for increased alcohol enforcement and compliance during peak drinking times.

Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show drunken drivers were involved in two-fifths of St. Patrick's Day traffic deaths between 2006 and 2010.

The boys, 7 and 8 years old, died in a weekend crash with a T&S Trucking tanker loaded with brine water from a gas drilling operation. It happened on a U.S. 50 off-ramp.

Clarksburg Police Chief Marshall Goff said the boys' mother is Lucretia Mazzei, 49. The boys attended Adamston Elementary. Harrison County sent counselors there and to other schools Monday to help children cope.

The truck driver hasn't been identified or charged. Goff said the driver told police his brakes didn't work properly, but a preliminary investigation suggests they weren't an issue.

Hansford Milton Comer, 57, was driving a motorcycle on Sissonville Drive after 6 p.m. Saturday when something fell off the bike's rear rack, according to a news release from the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.

Deputy B.K. Howery stopped Comer and allegedly found he had no driver's license or insurance for the motorcycle, and the license plate belonged to another vehicle. Comer's license had been revoked for eight DUI offenses, and he was convicted of driving while his license was revoked for DUI in 1995, according to the release.

Comer was again charged with driving while his license was revoked for DUI, as well as other traffic offenses. He was arraigned by Magistrate Julie Yeager and taken to South Central Regional Jail.

DANESE, W.Va. -- A Fayette County man was killed Sunday night after his pickup truck slammed into a bridge near Danese.

Franklin D. Terry, 51, of Danese, was driving on W.Va. 41 aroound 8 p.m. when he apparently lost control of his pickup truck and slammed into a bridge, Fayette Sheriff Steve Kessler said in a news release.

Kessler said the bed of Terry's truck separated from the cab and frame. The sheriff said the bed remained on the roadway, but the rest of the truck hurtled over the embankment. He said a slab of concrete tumbled off of the bridge and slammed into the cab of the truck, trapping Terry inside.

Charleston police said Andre Williamson, 25, and Cierra Leftwich, 22, were shot in the legs outside The Seoul of Charleston restaurant, near the intersection of Washington Street West and Stockton Street, between 3:30 and 4 a.m.

Police have arrested Williamson -- also known as A3 -- and charged him with accessory in the death of David Juaboi Booker, who was found dead from multiple bullet wounds in the 1200 block of Milton Street in October 2012.

Richard Bernard Hilliard pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of voluntary manslaughter in Booker's death. Hilliard told a judge that Booker had tried to rob him and Williamson as the three were sitting in a car on Charleston's East End one night.

Prosecutors are still awaiting toxicology results to make that distinction.

An autopsy hasn't been completed on Renee Honaker, 30, of Left Hand, who died last week. Lab results for the acid strips she allegedly took aren't back yet either, Roane County Prosecuting Attorney Josh Downey said on Saturday.

Police charged Renee's husband, Todd Anthony Honaker, 34, with first-degree murder after the couple apparently each took two hits of LSD on March 1. Renee later fell to the floor, began convulsing and died.

Kanawha Circuit Judge Carrie Webster

Circuit Judge Carrie Webster said she was trying to clear her docket of cases she believed were inactive when she accidentally issued an order that dismissed a felony attempted-kidnapping charge against Jeremy Carter.

Carter, an apparent drifter from Tennessee, was arrested last year after he tried to take a child from a vehicle near the mound in South Charleston, police said. He believed the child was his own, according to prosecutors.

He was released from jail Thursday, Webster confirmed.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston police are investigating a report of a robbery on the city's West Side Friday evening.

A Metro 911 dispatcher said a man reported that someone pointed a gun at him and demanded money while he was on a pay phone at Patrick Street Plaza.

The suspect then left on foot, the dispatcher said. It was unclear if he made off with any money.

HURRICANE, W.Va. -- A former Hurricane city councilman was indicted on charges of soliciting a minor in one of 64 indictments returned by a Putnam County grand jury this week.

Scott A. Cunningham, 31, of Hurricane, was arrested last June and charged with two felony counts of soliciting a minor via computer.

He allegedly sent sexual text messages to a 13-year-old girl and asked the girl to take naked photos, according to a criminal complaint filed in Putnam County Magistrate Court.

FRAMETOWN, W.Va. -- Two people were killed and four others were injured Friday afternoon in a single-vehicle accident along Interstate 79 in Braxton County.

The accident occurred near Frametown at about 2 p.m., according to an alert issued through the state Department of Transportation's 511 information system.

Braxton County 911 dispatchers said two were pronounced dead at the scene and they didn't know the extent of the other four's injuries.

BRADLEY, W.Va. -- Police say a man with a knife attempted to rob a Raleigh County grocery store Friday morning.

The man held a clerk at the Bradley Supermarket, in Bradley, at knifepoint and demanded money, according to a statement from the Raleigh County Sheriff's Department.

The incident happened at about 10:30 a.m.

Justin and Alandra Wellman

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Two married former Mingo County school employees sent female students explicit sexual messages and video chats on Facebook, police said.

The West Virginia State Police on Thursday arrested Justin Lee Wellman, 24, and Alandra Deseray Wellman, 23, of 12264 North Big Creek Road, Hatfield, Ky., in connection to alleged conversations they had with two girls from Feb. 1 to March 5.

Justin Wellman was a custodian at Matewan Middle School. Alandra Wellman worked as a teachers' assistant at Burch Middle School in Delbarton.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Police charged a Charleston man with attempted murder Friday morning after he allegedly stabbed his father in the neck with a knife.

At 6:29 a.m., Charleston police responded to report of a stabbing at 1620 B Franklin Ave. and met with Thomas Ornbaun, 60.

Ornbaum said his 24-year-old son, Drew Connor Ornbaun, stabbed him in the neck with a knife as his father walked out of his bedroom, according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom sentenced Rick Hanson, Brian Townsend and Gary Belcher, all 20, on charges linked to the beating of Corey Carr, whom the three men admitted to attacking on Park Street in St. Albans last year.

The judge sentenced Hanson, whom prosecutors said was the ringleader of the beating, to a one- to five-year prison term, but suspended the sentence and placed him in the Anthony Correctional Center in Greenbrier County, where he will have to complete a yearlong program before being released on probation.

Belcher received a year in the South Central Regional Jail after the judge noted that he declined to participate in a screening interview for the county day-report program. Belcher said that he understood the screening to be voluntary.

Media outlets report that the Summers County grand jury indicted Billy Joe Gill, 25, on two counts of attempted murder and two-counts of first-degree arson.

The grand jury handed up the indictments Wednesday.

Gill is accused of setting a fire at a two-story house in Hinton around 1:25 a.m. on Feb. 26. A second fire about 30 minutes later leveled the downtown apartment buildings known as Brick Row.

PINCH, W.Va. -- Police arrested four people last night at an alleged methamphetamine lab in Pinch.

Robert "Bob" Jarvis, 53, was arrested after Kanawha County sheriff's deputies and members of the Metro Drug Enforcement Team got a tip about his home at 206 Broadlawn Terrace, according to a news release from the sheriff's department.

After police saw people hiding materials often used to make meth, they got a search warrant and found what they described as a "medium-size" meth lab, according to the release.

Chris Dorst

Investigators leave a house on Lincoln Avenue in St. Albans, where a man facing an eviction notice killed himself Thursday morning.

ST. ALBANS, W.Va. -- A St. Albans businessman who had fallen on hard times shot and killed himself Thursday morning while Kanawha County sheriff's deputies were trying to serve an eviction notice.

"It's sad," said Capt. James Agee of the St. Albans Police Department. "We know him, and he's a good guy."

Police had not released the man's name as of Thursday afternoon, pending notification of relatives.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston Mayor Danny Jones said Thursday morning that his son had been arrested and charged with possession of cocaine, in a statement in which the mayor called his son "a hopeless drug addict" and said that jail offered his son his best chance to live.

Zachary Francis Jones, 23, was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to deliver, and was arrested along with Moldavian Harris, 24, of Detroit. Police stopped the two early Thursday morning.

"It may surprise many to know that I was relieved when I found out Zac was arrested, because I know that the only things that might save his life are isolation and yes, incarceration," the mayor said in his statement, released at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

Media outlets report that 17-year-old Thomas Vas' trial is scheduled to begin June 4. He will be tried an as adult.

The Dailey resident is charged with murder in the death of 17-year-old Dustin White last October.

Police say the stabbing occurred outside the stadium in Mill Creek about 20 minutes before a game between Tygarts Valley and Hundred High School.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia Foundation and 23 other ACLU affiliates across the country have filed public records requests with law enforcement and military agencies.

In West Virginia, the organization has asked the Charleston and Huntington police departments for information about SWAT teams and cutting edge weapons and technologies, including GPS tracking and unmanned aerial drones. The organization also has asked the West Virginia National Guard for information about cooperative agreements with police departments and incidents of National Guard contact with civilians.

Brenda Green of the West Virginia ACLU says residents deserve to know how much local police are using military weapons and tactics for everyday policing.