AP
Cathy Bennett
ROCKY MOUNT, Va. (AP) _ A Franklin County nurse has pleaded guilty to helping a friend try to hire a hit man to kill the woman’s ex-husband. Media outlets report that 38-year-old Cathy Warren Bennett of Rocky Mount pleaded guilty Tuesday in Franklin County Circuit Court to conspiracy to solicit murder. Bennett faces up to 10 years in prison. Sentencing is set for Oct. 17. Prosecutors say Bennett and former kindergarten teacher Angela Nolen approached a co-worker about hiring a hit man to kill Nolen’s ex-husband, Paul Strickler. The co-worker contacted authorities and Nolen met with an undercover state police agent instead. The 47-year-old Nolen pleaded guilty in June to solicit to commit murder. She faces up to 40 years in prison when sentenced next week.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Gov. Bob McDonnell says he will return remaining gifts to himself and his family from a major campaign donor and businessman who lavished Virginia’s first family with tens of thousands of dollars in gifts for years. Continue reading
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) _ A Rocky Mount police officer and another man are facing charges related to straw purchases of firearms. The office of U.S. Attorney Timothy Heaphy says a federal grand jury in Roanoke has indicted 25-year-old police officer James Marion Slate and 57-year-old David Carson Haskins. Both are charged with one count of conspiracy to make straw purchases of firearms. Haskins also is charged with 18 counts of making false statements to a licensed gun dealer. The prosecutor’s office says both men have been released on bond. It’s unclear whether they have retained attorneys.
Ewell Hunt
Jonathan Agee
Jennifer Agee
Former Franklin County Sheriff Ewell Hunt has entered an Alford plea to a misconduct charge stemming from his actions before a deputy killed a woman. Hunt was accused of failing to warn other authorities that former Deputy Jonathan Agee planned to kill his ex-wife. Hunt acknowledged Thursday that he made mistakes on the day that Agee fatally shot Jennifer Agee in Roanoke in 2011.
Hunt entered his plea in Franklin County Circuit Court. An Alford plea means the defendant doesn’t admit guilt but acknowledges there’s enough evidence to convict. Hunt was convicted of the misdemeanor charge in General District Court but appealed to circuit court.
Under a plea agreement, the charge will be dismissed if Hunt doesn’t commit any other criminal offenses during the coming year.
Advocates on both sides of the gay marriage debate agree that the Supreme Court’s decisions in two cases don’t affect Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban. The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a provision of a federal law denying federal benefits to married gay couples. It also left a lower court ruling overturning California’s gay marriage ban intact. But that decision was based on a legal technicality and did not address the constitutionality of state laws prohibiting same-sex unions.
James Parrish of Equality Virginia praised the Supreme Court’s rulings. He said the gay-rights organization will continue working to repeal Virginia’s gay marriage ban.
Victoria Cobb of the conservative Family Foundation said she was disappointed the federal law was struck down. But she noted that Virginia’s prohibition stands.
Angela Nolen
A kindergarten teacher has pleaded guilty in Franklin County to trying to have her ex-husband killed. 47-year-old Angela Nolen pleaded guilty Tuesday in Franklin County Circuit Court to solicit to commit murder. Police say the Moneta resident paid an undercover state police agent $4,000 to kill Paul Strickler. She planned to pay another $4,000 after her x-husband was killed. Nolen is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 9. She faces up to 40 years in prison.
A co-defendant, school nurse Cathy Bennett of Rocky Mount, is accused of helping Nolen. She’s charged with conspiracy. Bennett remains free on bond. Her trial is set for July. Nolen was a teacher at Sontag Elementary School. Bennett was a nurse at the school.
Union First Market Bankshares Corp. plans to acquire StellarOne Corp. in a stock transaction valued at $445 million. The banks announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement on Monday in a news release. They say the merger will create the largest community banking institution in Virginia, with total assets of more than $7 billion. The combined company will retain the Union name. Its headquarters will remain in Richmond.
Union CEO G. William Beale will lead the combined company’s leadership team. StellarOne president and CEO O.R. Barham Jr. will retire, effective when the merger is completed. StellarOne chairman Raymond D. Smoot Jr. will become chairman of the combined company. The merger must be approved by regulators and shareholders. It’s expected to be completed around Jan. 1, 2014.
DAMASCUS, Va. (AP) _ Witnesses described a frantic scene and close calls after an elderly driver plowed into dozens of hikers marching in a small Virginia mountain town’s parade.
Investigators say they are looking into whether the man had suffered a medical emergency before the accident. The driver was being treated and hasn’t been identified.
About 50 to 60 people suffered injuries ranging from critical to superficial, but no fatalities were reported. Three of the worst injured were flown by helicopter to area hospitals.
It happened during the Hikers Parade at the Trail Days festival, an annual celebration of the Appalachian Trail in Damascus, near the Tennessee state line.
Rev. E.W. Jackson
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Virginia Republicans have chosen firebrand conservative minister E.W. Jackson’s for lieutenant governor, the first black candidate the party has nominated for statewide office since 1988.
Jackson provoked the loudest ovation of the day at from the tea party-dominated Republican Party convention in Richmond on Saturday, declaring in an impassioned speech, “I am not an African-American, I am an American!”
He won the nomination on the fourth ballot over six rivals. As the only black candidate, he becomes the first black Republican nominee since the party nominated Maurice Dawkins in 1988.
Jackson heads a nondenominational church in Chesapeake and credits his religious background for his shift from the Democratic Party. His first GOP bid for office came last year when he lost the U.S. Senate nomination to former Sen. George Allen.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ State Sen. Mark Obenshain has won the Republican nomination for attorney general in Virginia 35 years after his father won the party’s U.S. Senate nomination.
Obenshain was nominated by acclamation on a voice vote after his rival, Del. Rob Bell, conceded defeat after the first ballot at the Virginia Republican Convention on Saturday.
Obenshain’s father, Richard Obenshain, won the party’s U.S. Senate nomination in the same building in 1978, but was killed in August of that year when a small plane carrying him home from a campaign event crashed when Mark Obenshain was 16. John W. Warner took his place on the ballot and won the first of five U.S. Senate terms.
Onstage with Obenshain when he accepted the nomination was his mother and Richard Obenshain’s widow, Helen Obenshain.