CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A former Princeton police officer accused of bribing a 17-year-old boy into sex has pleaded guilty to a bribery charge.
Christopher Winkler, 27, faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in December
Police said Winkler - allegedly in uniform and on duty -- met a 17-year-old boy in the parking lot of a Princeton supermarket on March 1, 2011, and tried to get the boy to perform oral sex on him to pay off a debt owed by the boy.
WINFIELD -- A Charleston woman was beat up and robbed by her friend in Winfield after refusing to let her borrow money, according to police.
Rebecca Ann Gibson, 30, of Winfield, was arrested Monday and charged with battery, armed robbery and destruction of property, according to a criminal complaint filed in Putnam County Magistrate Court.
Andrea Harris, of Charleston, had gone to visit Gibson around 10:30 a.m. Monday, according to the complaint. After Harris would not let Gibson borrow money, Gibson allegedly punched Harris in the ear and jaw, causing her to fall back onto a mattress on the floor.
One person pleaded guilty in state court, while all the others appeared in federal court. All the suspects had been indicted in May.
Most of their sentencings will occur over the next several months.
Ihlenfeld said Monday that a 53rd defendant has died since the indictments, so that case was dismissed.
Charleston firefighters and city police are investigating an apparent arson at a West Side home that was set on fire two days in a row.
Sgt. Eric Hodges of the Charleston Police Department said someone apparently set fire to the home at 947 Walnut St. at about 1 a.m. Sunday and again at about 2 a.m. Monday.
Capt. Ken Tyree of the Charleston Fire Department said the house was destroyed by the fires. He said the house had been rented, but had been vacant since July. He said the previous tenant's belongings were still in the house, and the landlord was making repairs to the structure at the time of the fires.
SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County sheriff's deputies do not suspect foul play in connection to a woman who was found dead in the woods near South Charleston Monday morning.
A Kanawha County Metro 911 dispatchers said the woman's body was found off a gravel road past Myrtle Tree Road on Chestnut Street at about 7:45 a.m. The person who called 911 said the woman whose body was found had frequently camped in the area.
The victim was identified as Julia Hughes, 53, of South Charleston. Capt. Rick Rose of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department said Hughes' body was found in a tent where she had been staying.
Police charged Jennifer Garretson, 37, with armed robbery and Gary Garretson Jr., 39, both of Shrewsbury, with accessory after the fact.
Jennifer Garretson is accused of robbing the City National Bank in Glasgow at about 2 p.m. Friday.
Police say Gary Garretson Jr. helped Jennifer hide the clothes she was wearing during the robbery as well as the money. The man also drove the get-away vehicle, Sergeant Larry O'Bryan, Quincy detachment commander, said.
A caller reported that a white male had robbed the casino, according to a Metro 911 dispatcher.
The Nitro Police Department is investigating the incident.
Laurence H. Nichol's family reported him missing after he went for a walk Tuesday evening and didn't return.
Police tell media outlets that searchers found his body Saturday evening in the Cheat Lake area where he lived with his daughter and son-in-law. Nichols had Alzheimer's disease.
His body was sent to the medical examiner's office.
Charleston Police responded to a domestic battery call in the 400 block of Randolph Street on Charleston's West Side at about 3:50 a.m.
According to Charleston Police, Jeffery Brock, 46, allegedly assaulted the mother of his children. Police said she picked up a knife to defend herself, and Brock was taken to CAMC General Hospital with injuries.
Police said Brock left the hospital and returned to the residence. Police arrested him on charges of domestic battery and returned him to the hospital where he was being treated Saturday.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- One person was taken to the hospital after being stabbed in the back early Saturday morning.
Charleston Police responded to a call in the 400 block of Randolph Street on Charleston's West Side around 3:50 a.m. after one person was stabbed in the back.
The man, who police have not yet publicly identified, was taken to CAMC General Hospital.
Stubbs and Vance were convicted in 2001 on charges of aggravated assault and drug possession and sentenced to 44 years in prison, at least partly because a discredited forensic bite-mark analyst gave bogus testimony during their trial that pinned them to the attack, Stubbs' lawyer, Valena Beety, told the Gazette-Mail.
Beety is now the director of the West Virginia University Innocence Project, a new legal clinic affiliated with a national organization of criminal defense lawyers who help prisoners fight wrongful convictions.
"You get to feel great about what you do -- push through all the obstacles that are in your way," Beety said. "And when you get someone out of prison, it's amazing."
BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. -- Authorities say a 53-year-old Eastern Panhandle man who accidentally shot himself in the head was apparently a former military weapons instructor.
The Journal reported David Holiday Jr. died Wednesday night. He was a native of Gallitzin, Pa.
Sgt. Seth Place, of the Morgan County Sheriff's Department, said Holiday had invited friends over to either sell or give away some guns. While showing them, he raised one pistol above his head. A witness said the gun then discharged.
At about 12:43 p.m. the driver of a Dodge Neon was attempting to cross the southbound lanes of U.S. 19, near the intersection of W.Va. 612 when it crossed in front of a utility van. The driver of the Neon, Francis Catherine Fish, 52, of Lookout, was trapped in the vehicle for about 20 minutes before emergency crews could free her, according to a release from the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.
Fish was pronounced dead shortly after she arrived at Plateau Medical Center in Oak Hill. The driver of the van, Michael E. Lilly, 39, of Princewick, was treated at the hospital with minor injuries.
The northbound lanes of U.S. 19 were closed for about an hour after the accident. Deputies are investigating the accident but they do not believe alcohol is a factor.
GLASGOW, W.Va. -- Troopers from the Quincy detachment of the West Virginia State Police have taken over the investigation of a bank robbery in Glasgow on Friday.
Glasgow police initially responded to a call about a robbery at the City National Bank on Melrose Drive in Glasgow. A Kanawha County Metro 911 dispatcher said the bank was robbed just after 2 p.m.
A 5-foot-9-inch white woman fled the scene on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash, the dispatcher said.
A passer-by called the Kanawha County Metro 911 Center at about 6:15 a.m. to report that a body had been spotted near the intersection of New Hope Road and North Pinch Road, according to a Metro 911 dispatcher.
Members of the Kanawha Bureau of Investigation identified the man as Joseph Clay Huffman, 19, of Elkview.
Capt. Rick Rose of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department said there were no obvious signs of foul play. Huffman's body has been sent to the state Medical Examiner's Office to determine a cause of death.
Three are from Maryland, two are West Virginians and one is from Pennsylvania.
With the help of social media, police identified 21-year-old Kathryn Durko of Cokeburg, Pa.; 22-year-old Timothy Watkins of Westminster, Md.; James Richard Zito of Glenelg, Md., and 18-year-old Alexandra Amato of Morgantown.
Charges against the four students include disorderly conduct, and battery and obstruction of an officer.
Authorities say Howard Nichol also has a bad hip. He was last seen in the Cheat Lake area, and searches have so far failed to find him.
Monongalia County emergency management director Mike Wolfe says trained search and rescue teams will be out again Friday, and he's seeking volunteers to help Saturday. They should report to Cheat Lake Elementary at 7:30 a.m. and wear orange vests in case hunters are in the woods, too.
Media outlets say the 911 center sent a phone message to people who live in the Cheat Lake area, asking them to check sheds, garages and other empty buildings in case Nichol is hiding.
The Register-Herald reports that police don't think any bullets hit the burglar, who fled on foot and remains at large.
Sheriff Steve Kessler says it happened just before 2 a.m. Thursday. The woman was awakened by her home alarm system, which also notified the county 911 center to dispatch police.
The woman grabbed her .38-caliber revolver and went to check her home when she encountered the intruder, who punched her. The woman, who was not identified, suffered a minor head injury but declined medical treatment.
Webster said officers use the cash for out-of-town trips and other expenses. But when an officer went to take money out of the fund last month, it was found that about $750 was missing.
Webster confirmed Thursday that police are investigating the fund. Police don't yet know if the money was lost or misplaced, or if someone took it. "At the very least, we have negligent mishandling [of the funds]," Webster said.
Two civilian employees who were in charge of the petty cash fund resigned late last week, Webster confirmed.
While going through security, Howard W. Shingleton Jr., 51, took a small amount of marijuana and a pipe out of his pocket before walking through the metal detector, according to a court marshal and a criminal complaint filed in Putnam County Magistrate Court.
DELBARTON, W.Va. -- Police said a Mingo County man was shot dead Wednesday night after attacking a man with a hammer and coming back twice to run over him in a stolen pickup truck.
West Virginia State Police spokesman Sgt. Michael Baylous said Phillip Gillman, 49, of North Matewan, got into a fight with Alfred Russell Curry, 75, on property Curry owns along Elk Creek Road near Delbarton. State Police said Gillman, who was staying in a camper on Curry's land, apparently attacked Curry, hitting him in the head with a claw hammer.
According to State Police, the injured Curry stumbled out into the road, where he was found by a passer-by. Gillman, meanwhile, ran off.
DOTHAN, W.Va. -- A 70-year-old woman shot at a burglar after he punched her in the face early Thursday in Fayette County, police said.
According to Fayette County Sheriff Steve Kessler, deputies went to the woman's home in the Dothan area just before 2 a.m. The woman called 911 to say that someone had broken into her home, that she had shot at the man and he had fled, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.
The woman told police she woke up to the sound of a burglar alarm, grabbed a .38 revolver and walked toward the back door of her home. The suspect had cut open the back door's screen and broken a window in the back door, triggering the alarm, Kessler said.
DUNBAR, W.Va. -- A Dunbar man was shot multiple times at an apartment complex near Shawnee Park just before noon on Thursday, and police charged another man with the shooting several hours later.
Joe Green, 21, of Young Avenue, was shot and taken into surgery around 1:30 p.m. at CAMC General Hospital, Kanawha County sheriff's deputies said. He was in the intensive care unit late Thursday, according to hospital staff.
Police charged Franklin Delano Beverly, 31, of Dunbar, with malicious wounding. Police found him about two blocks from the scene on Smith Avenue.
Detective Sgt. S.D. Ferrell of the Kanawha Bureau of Investigation charged Ewell Keith White, 59, of Layland, with one count of first-degree sexual assault against the female child.
The alleged assault occurred at a residence on Kanawha State Forest Drive in Loudendale, according to the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.
The girl was interviewed at the Child Advocacy Center in CAMC Women and Children's Hospital in Charleston.
A grand jury indicted former City Manager David Mayle in 2010. His trial is under way this week in Harrison County Circuit Court.
A co-defendant, former City Clerk Sherry Olenick, pleaded guilty in September to falsifying accounts and conspiring to embezzle city funds. She agreed to cooperate in the case against Mayle.
Media outlets report that several former Salem officials and former employees testified Wednesday.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Police continued to search into Thursday night for the person who shot a man in the head and left his body on the side of the street in Charleston's East End.
Two people walking in the 1200 block of Milton Street around 1:30 a.m. Thursday saw David Jauboi Booker, 25, of Charleston, lying on the side of the road, said Charleston Police Sgt. Bobby Eggleton.
He only promised his officers would be ready to prevent mayhem similar to what was reported last week after West Virginia University defeated the University of Texas. Police said about a thousand people took to the streets in the Sunnyside area of Morgantown and some started fires, destroyed property and threw objects at officers.
Preston said revealing how his department would preempt rioting fans would create a "confrontational atmosphere" this Saturday.
"It's just creating a situation when everyone knows what you're going to do and they change what they're planning on doing," he said.
BELLEFONTE, Pa. -- Headed to prison for the rest of his life, Jerry Sandusky leaves behind a trail of human and legal wreckage that could take years to clear away.
Victims face a lifetime of healing. Penn State is laboring under severe NCAA penalties. And at least four civil lawsuits have been filed against a university shamed by scandal, with more likely to come.
If Sandusky felt any remorse or pity for anyone but himself, he didn't show it at his sentencing Tuesday. Instead, speaking in court for the first time since his arrest last November, the former Penn State assistant football coach delivered a disjointed and defiant monologue in which he denied committing "disgusting acts" against children and cast himself as the victim.
Carissa Hads, 25, of Quincy, also could be fined as much as $250,000 when sentenced on the single count of traveling across state lines with the intention of having sex with a minor. She's in custody and appeared before U.S. Magistrate John Kaull in Clarksburg to enter her plea.
Investigators say Hads pretended to be an 18-year-old named James Puryear Wilson on the social networking site MySpace and started a relationship with the Lewis County victim in 2010. The two communicated for more than a year before their first in-person meeting.
A State Police investigator said Hads wore colored contact lenses and a back brace to cover her chest, and that she visited the 15-year-old girl at least three times, once at a Pittsburgh motel in December 2011.
Prosecutors announced the additional allegations against David Albert Mitchell at an arraignment Tuesday in state court in Manhattan. They also accused him of threatening to spit on and punch police officers following his arrest.
In addition to first-degree rape, the jailed Mitchell pleaded not guilty Tuesday to lesser charges of forcible touching and sex abuse involving the two other women. They credited the original victim with helping identify the alleged attacker, described as a drifter from West Virginia with a violent past.
"We want to thank the victim for her courage and for her assistance in the investigation," District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement.
ELKVIEW, W.Va. -- Kanawha County sheriff's deputies say they have located a woman believed to be involved in a hit-and-run collision last week that injured two paramedics in a county ambulance.
Capt. Sean Crosier of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department said deputies believe Lisa Carol Walker, 45, of Blue Creek Road, hit the ambulance in the parking lot of the Big Chimney Hardee's at about 8:30 p.m. Oct. 2. Deputies allege that Walker then fled in a white Buick Century she was driving.
Thomas Robinson, 26, of Cross Lanes and Karrie Cunningham, 34, were injured in the collision and taken to CAMC General Hospital.
DAWES, W.Va. -- All railroad crossings have reopened from a coal train derailment Tuesday morning in Dawes.
The wheels of about 10 coal cars left the tracks on Joliet Road, not far from Sharon Dawes Elementary School, shortly after 9 a.m., according to Kanawha County Metro 911 dispatchers.
Railroad crews closed four crossings, at Dawes Hollow, Miami Hill, Sharon Hill and Joliet Road, until about 4:30 p.m. Dispatchers warned drivers about heavy equipment near the crossings.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia's regional jails chief told legislators Monday that he's requested an independent, outside investigator to review agency policy following last month's arrest of a correctional officer accused of giving inmates cigarettes in exchange for sex.
Agency Executive Director Joe DeLong responded to several questions from a House-Senate oversight committee prompted by the criminal charges filed against officer William Roy Wilson.
State Police arrested Wilson, 29, of Beckley, and accused him of forcing sexual acts with three women at the Southern Regional Jail starting in May. The Legislature passed earlier this year that makes sexual contact between people under supervision and officers, contractors or other staff a felony. The new law, crafted by the interim study committee, makes clear that consent cannot be a defense.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Mayor Jim Manilla said Morgantown needs more police officers and firefighters to deal with street fires and other incidents following West Virginia University sports events and that the students should help pay the cost of hiring them.
Manilla told media outlets he is considering asking the university to assess a $20 student-impact fee for each WVU student each semester. The fee would generate about $1.2 million in revenue for the city annually.
"This is public safety," he said. "They [WVU] need to pay their fair share."
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- An Ohio woman who crashed along Interstate 64 earlier this year said she couldn't claim the accident on her insurance because police allegedly lost the report.
Nicky Strickland, of Kettering, Ohio, said she's contacted multiple local agencies but no one can help her.
In the early-morning hours of Jan. 16, Strickland said she was driving back from Charlotte, N.C., when a tractor-trailer cut her off on I-64 near Nitro.
KINGWOOD, W.Va. -- Sen. Jay Rockefeller says first responders in West Virginia and across the country will now be able to communicate better than ever.
In a speech at the National Guard's Camp Dawson training facility in Kingwood, Rockefeller said Monday that a new, interoperable wireless broadband network will let them communicate in real time -- for the first time ever.
He says terror attacks, mine explosions and other disasters have shown the need for better communication systems. Rockefeller pushed for the dedicated broadband bill for years, and it was signed into law in February.
The incident happened at about 2 p.m. Saturday in the Lavista area of U.S. Route 60, according to a release from the Fayette County Sheriff's Office.
Police say Carl Cox, 50, of Edmond, was injured in the crash and is in serious but stable condition at Charleston Area Medical Center.
Two others, a 63-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman, both of Kentucky, were injured in the wreck and are currently being treated at CAMC.
An "unruly" crowd of about 1,000 people took to the streets in the Sunnyside area of Morgantown after the game, according to a news release from the Morgantown Police Department.
Approximately 50 police officers from various agencies wore protective helmets, gas masks, and body armor and carried crowd-control batons as they tried to control the crowd, police say. People pelted the officers with bottles, rocks and other objects, according to police.
Police officers used pepper spray and CS gas against the groups, who were setting fires, fighting and trying to overturn vehicles, police say.
Gabriella Brown, 31, faces one count of acquiring oxycodone by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception and subterfuge, according to an information filed in U.S. District Court.
An information is a charging document that generally indicates a defendant is willing to cooperate with prosecutors.
In August, after Beckley police Chief Tim Deems announced that the drugs were stolen from the evidence room, Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Keller said she was forced to dismiss drug cases going back 15 months. Previous convictions and guilty pleas also could be overturned, she said.
BECKLEY, W.Va. -- Police in Beckley said three men invaded the home of a 32-year-old man last week and shot him multiple times, killing him.
Two turned themselves in to police and the third was arrested Thursday night while visiting a relative at CAMC Women and Children's Hospital.
At about 10:49 p.m. on Sept. 26, Beckley police responded to a shooting at 100 6th Street in Beckley, according to a criminal complaint filed in Raleigh County Magistrate Court. Officers found Shawn DeWayne Rucker lying in front of the house with multiple gunshot wounds, the complaint said.
The board's vote Thursday came three weeks after Hampshire County authorities charged 39-year-old Roger L. Sipple of Romney with eight counts of sexual abuse by a guardian.
A criminal complaint alleges Sipple bought alcohol and cigarettes for a 16-year-old girl and another juvenile in exchange for them exposing and touching themselves at his home.
The Charleston Daily Mail reports Sipple was a child care worker in one of three residential halls and has worked at the School for the Blind since at least 2008.
Police in Clarksburg issued an arrest warrant Sept. 19 for Darnell "Nish" Carlton Bouie, 35, on a first-degree murder charge.
Police said Bouie and Ennis Charles Payne, 37, fatally shot Jayar "Trevor" Poindexter on Jan. 13, 2010, on Overlook Drive in Clarksburg.
Payne turned himself into police Sept. 18 and he was charged with first-degree murder.
U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin says 26-year-old Marcus Antonio Hodge of Bluefield was sentenced in federal court in Beckley this week to a year and a half in prison for his guilty plea to distribution of the painkiller hydromorphone.
The Bluefield Pill Initiative has resulted in the convictions of about two-dozen people.
PARKERSBURG, W.Va. -- Parkersburg police say they've charged a man after he admitted striking a 3-year-old boy who later died.
Police said in a statement that 29-year-old Matthew Lamp of Parkersburg has been charged with death of a child by a parent, guardian or custodian.
A criminal complaint filed in Wood County Magistrate Court says the boy was left in Lamp's care last weekend. Media outlets report that the boy died Wednesday at a Morgantown hospital.
LOUDENDALE, W.Va. -- An Ohio fugitive was arrested Thursday in Kanawha County.
Sgt. J.H. Thaxton of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department went to a home on Gator Lane in Loudendale after getting a tip that the fugitive might be there, according to Capt. Sean Crosier.
Erin Hess, 28, of Cleveland, was arrested and taken to the South Central Regional Jail to await extradition. Hess was wanted on one count of felonious assault, two counts of grand theft of motor vehicle and two counts of criminal damaging, Crosier said.
Doddridge Circuit Judge Jim Sweeny approved a motion by county Prosecuting Attorney Brooke Fitzgerald to transfer Joseph S. Spencer to adult status on Wednesday.
According to state law, circuit judges are required to transfer youths ages 14 to 17 to adult court if prosecutors seek the transfer and the juvenile is charged with murder, rape, kidnapping, armed robbery, arson or treason. Spencer is 16 years old.
It's unclear if Spencer has hired an attorney. Spencer is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of his parents, Frederick Spencer and Dixie Spencer, and his 9-year-old sister, Patience Spencer.
State Police Sgt. Michael Baylous said Thursday that charges against Donald Scott Wills, 44, of Smithers, were dropped until investigating troopers can file charges that "accurately reflect his level of involvement in this crime."
Two other man have been charged for their alleged involvement. Baylous said State Police Cpl. M.A. Elswick and Sgt. K.E. Tawes, of the Gauley Bridge Detachment, discovered that Don Naylor, 48, and Michael Scarbro, 29, both of Smithers, were involved in the invasion.
Naylor and Scarbro each face charges of first-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit a felony. They were arraigned Thursday in Fayette County Magistrate Court and ordered held in Southern Regional Jail.
The blaze last weekend was one of seven street fires set after the West Virginia-Baylor football game.
Police say the Cass Street fire spread to and destroyed three parked vehicles. It also caused about $1,000 in damage to the exterior of a house.
That fire began at about 6:50 a.m. Sunday.