FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. -- Fayette County sheriff's deputies arrested a man Thursday in connection to alleged sexual abuse of a child.
Deputies, assisted by State Police Trooper C.L. Adkins, arrested Harold Dean Stump Jr., 52, of Fayetteville.
Stump was charged with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian. He was taken to Southern Regional Jail before posting a $50,000 bond Friday morning, according to a news release.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Lawyers for sniper suspect Shawn Lester say newspaper articles have cast him in such a bad light that it is impossible for Lester to get a fair trial in Kanawha County.
Recent news coverage and the original media uproar over the 2003 sniper-style shootings justify Lester's trial being moved to another county, defense attorney George Castelle told Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom on Thursday.
During a hearing to determine whether the trial should be moved, Castelle said Lester's name has been mentioned in newspaper articles 400 times since he was arrested April 1 in connection with the shootings that left three people dead in Kanawha County.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Members of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department drug unit seized about $20,000 worth of narcotics and cash at a home in St. Albans on Wednesday.
Jesse Edward Post, 35, of St. Albans was arrested after deputies received a tip and searched his home on Middle Drive, located in the Green Valley Drive area.
Sgt. Ron Mathis said deputies recovered prescription pills, hallucinogenic mushrooms, heroin and a little more than $6,000 cash.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A local television news anchor was arrested recently after allegedly driving on a revoked license from a previous driving under the influence conviction.
Kenova Police Officer A.M. Lewis pulled over David Berkley Benton, 42, of Huntington, on Jan. 28 along W.Va. 75 for driving with a registration expired in April, according to a criminal complaint filed in Wayne County Magistrate Court.
According to the criminal complaint, Benton told Lewis he did not have his registration card or insurance card, but did have a license.
The Record Delta says 18-year-Jeffrey Saltis of Buckhannon was charged Tuesday with contributing to the delinquency of a minor after soliciting a juvenile to commit battery.
Saltis remains free on $2,500 bond.
His attorney, Jerald Jones, says it was just a joke that was blown out of proportion. Jones says the situation centered on a girl Saltis is dating and her previous relationship with the intended victim.
State Police Sgt. J.D. Burkhart tells media outlets there's no reason to think anyone else was involved in the deaths of 56-year-old David Cole Hutzler and 9-year-old James "Mack'' Hutzler.
Both bodies were found in a rear bedroom, and autopsies later located gunshot wounds.
Burkhart says David Hutzler had seemed unstable to friends and families over the past few months. He'd recently told them that he and his son were going on a vacation and not coming back.
Media outlets report that two fires in the last week have been ruled as arsons. One occurred at the Knowles Animal Hospital and another occurred at a vacant building.
Logan Fire Chief Scott Beckett says fires at two commercial structures within seven days is more than coincidence.
Beckett says eight or nine fires have occurred in the last six weeks.
The Greenbrier County Sheriff's Department identified the victims as 80-year-old Lacy Osborne and his sons, Michael Osborne and Davy Osborne, both in their 40s.
The sheriff's department tells media outlets that the bodies were discovered Tuesday in the men's home near Rainelle. Police believe the men had been dead for 24 to 36 hours.
The cause of death hasn't been determined.
William Roper, president of the West Virginia Chiefs of Police Association, said his organization's website was compromised Monday by a group associated with Anonymous, an international hacker group with a stated mission of protecting free speech and fighting anti-piracy laws.
The subgroup, which calls itself "CabinCr3w," posted the personal information of more than 156 police officers, including current and retired police chiefs, to a public website.
The information was announced on Twitter, directing users to a website with a banner message warning that "police departments across the United States [have] become more militrarized [sic] and weaponized at our expense."
The Dominion Post says 54-year-old Robert Morrell of Rowlesburg is free on $50,000 bond. State Police charged him with first-degree sexual abuse Monday.
Police say he abused a Mountainview Elementary student at least twice in 2009.
Trooper K.H. Totten began investigating the complaints last spring.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Police said an investigation into a Sunday morning shooting on Charleston's West Side was slowed because witnesses only knew the suspect's street name.
The shooting victim identified the suspect from a photo lineup as Douglas Wesley Jr., 23. Wesley is also known as "Dougie" and "Dougie Fresh," police said.
On Tuesday, police charged Wesley with attempted murder and two counts of wanton endangerment with a weapon.
West Virginia State Police Trooper J.D. Brand told The Journal newspaper that both victims had gunshot wounds. Brand said additional details will be released after a final report from the state Medical Examiner's Office is received.
Assistant State Fire Marshal Patrick Barker said the fire was intentionally set.
The bodies of 56-year-old David Cole Hutzler and his 9-year-old son, James, were found after the fire on Jan. 6 in the rear bedroom of their mobile home near Glengary.
Media outlets report that search groups are in the Weston area this week to try to locate Aliayah Lunsford.
Authorities have classified her Sept. 24 disappearance as a crime but have made no arrests, named no suspects and declined to say what they think happened to the child.
Last month, FBI Special Agent William Crowley said investigators would offer updates if they were beneficial to the case. But right now, they're not. He said the investigation is in a different stage and different tactics are required.
Fire Chief Eric Taylor tells the Parkersburg News and Sentinel that investigators don't know whether a gas-fired wall heater in the dining room was the fire's source.
The fire occurred Saturday.
The bodies of the girls, ages 2 and 4, were sent to the state medical examiner's office in Charleston. A spokesman for the office says they haven't been positively identified.
Larry Crews, 40, of St. Albans was outside the Kickback Lounge in the 900 block of Central Avenue at about 2 a.m. when he was shot, according to Detective Jarl Taylor of the Charleston Police Department.
Security cameras caught at least part of the shooting, and Taylor said witnesses apparently saw Crews' cousin, Cameron Crews, 34, ditching a gun after the shooting.
Taylor said Cameron Crews was arrested and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. He said Cameron Crews has been convicted of drug charges.
John David McClung, 46, of Canvas, got into an argument at about 4 p.m. with Justin Moore, 27, of Summersville, at McClung's house, according to the Nicholas County Sheriff's department.
McClung allegedly pulled out two pistols and shot Moore in the leg and groin area. Moore was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said.
McClung was arrested Monday and charged with malicious wounding. He was being held Monday in Central Regional Jail in lieu of a $30,000 cash-only bail.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County sheriff's deputies arrested two Kanawha County residents on Sunday after allegedly finding materials for making methamphetamine in their car.
Deputy C.D. Lyons stopped a Pontiac G6 at the intersection of W.Va. 21 and Falcon Drive at about 9 a.m. Sunday because the car had an expired license plate, according to Lt. Bryan Robbins of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department. Lyons' police dog, Phoenix, sniffed the car and detected a suspicious odor, Robbins said.
Lyons then searched the vehicle and allegedly found pseudoephedrine, seven bottles of iodine, acetone, coffee filters and red phosphorous, Robbins said. The chemicals are typically used in making methamphetamine. Robbins said Lyons also allegedly found a small amount of the finished drug.
Twenty-eight-year-old Girard Curry of Coppa, Md., and 29-year-old Derran Hankins of Randallstown, Md., are scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 22 in federal court in Martinsburg on bank fraud and identity theft charges.
They're accused of having an unknown third person use a false ID to obtain a $40,000 bank check and $8,500 in cash from a bank account last August.
The indictment says they used the check at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races to obtain $40,000 worth of chips. They gambled about an hour, and then cashed in the remaining chips and left.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A man is in jail following a shooting early Sunday on Charleston's West Side.
Larry Crews, 40, of St. Albans was outside the Kickback Lounge in the 900 block of Central Avenue about 2 a.m. when he was shot, according to Detective Jarl Taylor of the Charleston Police Department.
At least part of the shooting was caught by security cameras, and Taylor said witnesses apparently saw Crews' cousin, Cameron Crews, 34, ditching a gun after the shooting.
ST. ALBANS, W.Va. -- Police said a man robbed two people by attacking them and running off with their belongings or cash at the same St. Albans apartment complex.
Shawn Lamar Gilmore, 41, of St. Albans, was arrested in connection to robberies on Jan. 28 and Thursday, said Capt. James Agee of the St. Albans Police Department.
On Jan. 28, Gilmore allegedly knocked a woman down and tried to steal her purse at an apartment complex on B Street, Agee said. When she fought back, he allegedly grabbed a bottle of pills from her purse and ran off.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Police are investigating as a homicide the death of a man whose body was found in Cheat Lake.
Media outlets report that the Monongalia County Sheriff's Department identified the victim as 23-year-old Quinten Bolden of Morgantown.
Bolden had been missing since late November.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- A Huntington man allegedly shot a Charleston man in the arm on Thursday night, and police said the alleged shooter's young son was in the man's van at the time.
Huntington Police were called to Cabell Huntington Hospital's Emergency Room at 11:05 p.m. after Greg H. Truslow, 21, walked in with several gunshot wounds, according to a news release.
Police say Truslow, who was released from the hospital Friday, told them a man shot at him from a van with a small child inside at the Sunoco gas station on 20th and 9th Avenue.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- St. Albans police are looking for a man believed involved in two robberies in the past week.
Police have gotten two arrest warrants for Shawn L. Gilmore, 41, of St. Albans for two alleged robberies on Jan. 28 and on Thursday, said Capt. James Agee of the St. Albans Police Department.
On Jan. 28, Gilmore allegedly knocked a woman down and tried to steal her purse at an apartment complex on B Street, Agee said. When she fought back, he allegedly grabbed a bottle of pills from her purse and ran off.
The U.S. attorney's office says 36-year-old Sylvester Cuevas was sentenced Thursday after previously admitting to both felony assaults. One occurred at the federal facility, while the other involved a correctional officer at the Southern Regional Jail in Raleigh County. Both assaults occurred in 2010.
In both instances, the guards suffered facial injuries.
Cuevas was serving a sentence in Beckley for mailing threatening communications.
The government says 76-year-old James P. Wooley of Louisa, Ky., entered his plea on Thursday and is scheduled for sentencing in May.
Prosecutors say Wooley owned and operated drug stores at two locations near Kermit. An investigation revealed that Wooley and other pharmacists under his direction dispensed controlled substances that did not have a doctor's approval.
The offenses occurred in 2006.
Richwood Mayor John D. McClung, 65, was charged with fraudulent schemes and obtaining money by false pretenses following a three-month investigation by the Ethics Commission, according to a news release issued by the West Virginia State Police.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Nicholas County Magistrate Court, McClung received a $2,500 check from Dalton Logistics Inc., on July 20, 2010, on behalf of a needy family. McClung deposited the check into the city's "Rails to Trails" account, a program that establishes biking and walking paths around Nicholas County, the criminal complaint states, adding that he then contacted the wife in the family, Teresa McCarley, and gave her a $2,500 check from the "Rails to Trails" account.
He told her to cash the check and bring him back the money and, in return, he would pay her overdue water bill, the criminal complaint states.
Berkeley County prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely tells media outlets that 23-year-old Jessica Lynn Skupnick of Hedgesville accepted the plea agreement Wednesday.
If a judge approves the agreement, Skupnick would enter an Alford plea to gross neglect of a child resulting in death. In an Alford plea, a defendant doesn't admit guilt but acknowledges the prosecution has enough evidence to convict.
She also would cooperate in the prosecution of her co-defendant, 19-year-old Dominic Michael Hall of Hedgesville.
West Virginia State Police say the remains have been sent to the state Medical Examiner's Office.
Police recovered the remains after a West Virginia University faculty member and his class reported seeing something floating in the lake Tuesday night.
Medical examiner's office spokeswoman Marsha Dadisman tells The Dominion Post that the man has not been identified.
SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va.-- A Rhode Island man remains in critical condition Wednesday after breathing more than 20 times the safe limit of carbon monoxide at a Corridor G hotel, police said.
A swimming pool heater is apparently to blame for the leak at the Holiday Inn Express at Corridor G Tuesday that killed William J. Moran, 44, and critically injured Bain Edmundson, 47, both of Rhode Island.
Edmundson remained in the Intensive Care Unit at St. Francis Hospital Wednesday, said South Charleston Assistant Chief of Police Robert Houck.
Assistant state fire marshal Scott Rhodes tells the Bluefield Daily Telegraph that the fire began on the third floor of the five-story Libby Building. The cause of the Jan. 24 fire remains undetermined.
A contractor hired by the city demolished the building after part of the structure collapsed. An adjacent building damaged by the collapse also has been torn down.
The Libby Building was built in the early 1920s. It housed 13 apartments, a bar and a vacant storehouse.
Marion County prosecutor Pat Wilson tells media outlets that he received the State Police's final report Monday.
Wilson asked the State Police in December to review the case after an internal investigation by the Sheriff's Department reached the same conclusion. He said at the time that an independent review in such incidents is best.
Deputy Chris Gearde shot and killed 45-year-old Michael Ray Rosser on Aug. 31, 2011.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County sheriff's deputies need help tracking down a car involved in a fatal hit and run accident last week.
Dennis Glen James, 47, of Elkview was crossing U.S. 119 at the Blue Creek Post Office at about 11:20 p.m. Jan. 27 when he was hit and killed by a car that then fled the scene, said Lt. Sean Crosier of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.
Crosier said deputies believe the car that hit James was either a 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt or a 2007-2010 Pontiac G5. The two vehicles have identical body styles but were sold under different names.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Logan County fire crews won a battle with a fire that threatened two businesses in downtown Logan this morning.
James Casey, a firefighter with the Logan Fire Department, said a fire broke out in a vacant law office on Stratton Street about 2 a.m. The building is between B&B Loans and a Dollar General Store.
Three fire departments joined forces to battle the blaze, which was confined to the vacant building and extinguished by 6 a.m. Casey said the neighboring businesses were not seriously damaged.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Boone County man charged with fatally shooting a woman Monday said her death was an accident.
Police said the man attempted to pawn several items stolen from the woman's home after fleeing in her car.
John Edward "Eddie" Hudson, 38, had asked his friend, Mark Southern, if he could temporarily stay at the home Southern shared with his girlfriend, Michelle Lynn Gillispie, 38, said Kanawha County Sheriff's Deputy Lt. Sean Crosier.
SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A swimming pool heater apparently caused a carbon monoxide leak that killed one man and critically injured another at a Corridor G hotel on Tuesday morning.
Officials were called to the Holiday Inn Express at Corridor G around 10 a.m. and arrived to find one man dead and another unresponsive, said Lt. G.E. Amburgey of the South Charleston Police Department. Both men were in their beds.
The men were part of a group of construction workers staying at the hotel. When they did not show up for a morning meeting, two other workers were sent to check on them. Those two workers were also overcome by the carbon monoxide.
Sgt. Bobby Eggleton of the Charleston Police Department said the two women apparently got into a fight over a man at the downtown Transit Mall about 10 a.m.
Nicole Lynn Dowd, 43, of Hutchinson Street, then stabbed Rachele Williams in the head with a pair of scissors, according to a criminal complaint on file in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.
Eggleton said the Williams was taken to CAMC General Hospital, but that her injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.
Media outlets report that a Monongalia County Circuit Court jury deliberated for two-and-a-half hours Monday before issuing its verdict in the trial of 20-year-old Andrew McIntyre.
McIntyre had been charged with first-degree murder.
Prosecutors said McIntyre shot 19-year-old Marcus Toothman with an arrow from a compound bow following an argument.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County sheriff's deputies have made an arrest in connection with the killing of a woman near Chesapeake on Monday.
According to Lt. Sean Crosier of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department, Mark Southern came home from work about 6 p.m. Monday to find his girlfriend, Michelle Lynn Gillispie, 39, dead in their Winifrede Hollow home. Crosier said Gillispie had been shot behind the left ear.
Southern told deputies that John Edward Hudson, 38, of Ashford, had been staying at the home for a few days, Crosier said. Crosier said deputies then contacted Hudson, who agreed to turn himself in.
U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin says 51-year-old Charles Jeffrey Asher wore a security guard uniform and threatened tellers with a replica pistol during both robberies.
Asher entered his plea Monday in federal court in Huntington. Sentencing is set for May 3.
Asher admitted robbing the First Priority Federal Credit Union in Barboursville on Aug. 23, 2011 and a BB&T branch in Hurricane on Oct. 3, 2011.
Melvin Peters, 24, allegedly sold an unspecified quantity of crack cocaine in Charleston to a confidential informant who was working under the supervision of the Metro Drug Unit, according to a criminal complaint.
Kanawha Magistrate Paris Workman arraigned Peters and set his bail at $100,000 cash only.
The shooting occurred Sunday at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bluewell. State Police troopers and Mercer County sheriff's deputies went to the cemetery in response to a report of a man armed with a rifle.
State Police Sgt. M.T. Baylous tells the Bluefield Daily Telegraph that 34-year-old Jackie Spalding Jr. fled from the officers after they arrived. He was found a short time later in a vehicle on a service road behind the cemetery mausoleum.
Baylous says Spalding repeatedly refused commands to show his hands as a trooper approached the vehicle. The trooper shot Spalding when he reached for the rifle.
Police tell media outlets that more than 50 people were involved in the fight early Sunday morning outside Yesterday's Night Club.
Police say University of Pikeville football player Branden Teasley was stabbed and is in stable condition. A teammate, Demetri Travis, suffered a concussion.
No arrests have been made.
The agency asked the state Public Service Commission in November to give it exclusive use of the 311 dialing code. On Friday, the PSC approved the agency's request to withdraw its petition.
Captain Michael Corsaro says that the Federal Communications Commission intended the 311 code to be used for all nonemergency systems, including fire departments and ambulance services.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- An Elkview man died in what polices say was a hit-and-run accident on Elk River Road Friday evening.
The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office is investigating the accident, which happened in the 5100 block of Elk River Road in Blue Creek, just north of the intersection of Blue Creek Road near the Blue Creek post office.
Deputies say a vehicle traveling north on Elk River Road struck and killed pedestrian Dennis Glen James, 47, around 11:20 p.m. as he crossed the road.
YAWKEY, W.Va. -- Police arrested a third person late Saturday in connection with a Monday hostage case in Morrisvale, the Boone County Sheriff's Department said.
The sheriff's department arrested Darrell McNeely, 40, of Julian and filed felony charges against him of accessory before and after the fact in connection with the alleged kidnapping and assault Chandra Clark.
Clark, 26, was allegedly raped and abused by her ex-husband, Barry Clark, and held hostage along with four other people late Monday and early Tuesday. Barry Clark faces several felony charges in connection with the incident, as does Melissa Breedlove, 39, who allegedly helped plan the attack.
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. -- A 71-year-old Lindside man has pleaded guilty to killing his wife and step-daughter.
WVAA-TV in Bluefield reports that Gerald Allison entered a plea to first-degree murder for the 2011 shooting death of his wife, 65-year old Dorothy Masters.
He pleaded to second-degree murder for the death of 42-year old Melissa Burks-Wills.
Anthony, 42, of Point Pleasant, is being paid by the county but has not returned to work as sheriff since he was arrested in November on a wanton-endangerment charge, said Dave Moye, Anthony's lawyer.
Anthony's filing came as Mason County commissioners began drafting a petition for his removal, expressing concern over the criminal charge and how he spent public money.
"He [Anthony] wants to show the people of Mason County that he is absolutely innocent," Moye said, "and that's what we will see with his jury trail and with his re-election campaign."
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Charleston man told police he was shot Friday morning on the city's West Side -- but police can't find the exact spot where the shooting happened.
Braheem Jamal Griffin, 18, of Charleston, told police someone shot him in the calf at about 8:30 a.m., said Charleston Police Sgt. Bobby Eggleton.
But Griffin could not describe his assailant and led police to three different locations where he believed he was shot, Eggleton said.
The West Virginia Surface Mine Board's order came Wednesday in an appeal of North Mountain Shale LLC's permit by Potomac Riverkeeper Inc., Gerrardstown Presbyterian Church and Washington Herald Trail.
The order says the quarry's impact on the area's viewshed will be minimal.
The order adds several conditions to the permit. One prohibits the company from disturbing more than 2 acres of the mineral area during the first year of operation.
An autopsy is scheduled today to determine the cause of death.
Thorn told WTOV-TV that officers went to the house Thursday morning after the woman's co-workers reported that she didn't show up for work.
The man was taken to a hospital. His condition wasn't known.





