Across Virginia
UPDATE: NBC12 in Richmond reports the victims are a man, woman and their 10-year-old son.
UPDATED STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE: DILLWYN, Va. – The Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Appomattox Field Office is continuing its investigative efforts into determining the origin and cause of Monday’s fatal fire in Buckingham County. At this time, state police fire investigators, with the assistance of the Buckingham County Sheriff’s Office, are still combing through the burnt debris for evidence to help them determine if the fire was accidental or suspicious in nature.
The Buckingham County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call at 4:54 a.m. Monday (Sept. 16) about a house fire in the 20,300 block of James Anderson Highway/Route 60. Volunteer fire departments from Dillwyn, Buckingham, Toga and Arvonia responded to the scene. The house was engulfed in flames when the first fire crews arrived on scene. Once the blaze was extinguished, fire officials found three deceased individuals inside the residence.
The remains of two adults and a juvenile are being transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond for examination, autopsy and positive identification.
STATE POLICE NEWS RELEASE: At 5:59 a.m. Monday (Sept. 16), the Buckingham County Sheriff’s Office requested the assistance of the Virginia State Police with a fatal fire at a residence in the 20300 block of James Anderson Highway. Once fire crews were able to extinguish the fire and make entry into the residence, the remains of three individuals were located inside. The origin and cause of the fire remain under investigation at this time.
HOT SPRINGS, Va. (AP) — Authorities say a 12-year-old boy has died after being struck by lightning in the Virginia mountains.
Media outlets report the Bath County Sheriff’s Office saying the lightning strike occurred Saturday afternoon in the Hot Springs area. The office said the unnamed boy died late Sunday morning.
The office says the local rescue squad initially requested on Saturday a medical airlift for the boy, who wasn’t breathing. But it couldn’t be arranged due to the bad weather. Instead the boy was transported to Bath Community Hospital and later to Roanoke Carilion Hospital.
The sheriff’s agency says the boy was visiting family in the Hot Springs area, but no other details will be released.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — Police say three teenagers who were shot after a high school football game in Virginia are expected to survive.
Newport News Police said via Twitter on Saturday that the shootings happened at the end of a football game at Todd Stadium on Friday night.
A 14-year-old victim was found in the stadium’s parking lot. Two 19-year-olds were found on a street near the stadium. The victims were taken to hospitals for treatment of gunshot wounds. Police say none of the injuries are life-threatening.
Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew told local media that paramedics were already on scene because of the game.
An investigation was ongoing.
Matthew Bernard
DANVILLE, Va. (AP) — The Virginia man who police say killed the wife, son and mother-in-law of a minor league baseball pitcher has been formally arraigned.
Officials with the Pittsylvania Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court said by phone Thursday that Matthew Bernard was arraigned on three counts of first-degree murder and weapons-related charges. The 18-year-old is being held in jail without bail.
Authorities say Bernard killed his sister, Emily Marie Bivens, and her 1-year-old son Cullen Bivens, and her mother, Joan Bernard, in late August.
Emily Bivens was married to Blake Bivens , a pitcher for the Montgomery Biscuits, a Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. Cullen Bivens was the couple’s 1-year-old child.
Court officials said Bernard’s court-appointed attorney is James Martin. He did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
Photo: Justin Fairfax Facebook
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) – Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax has filed a $400 million lawsuit against CBS, alleging the company defamed him when it broadcast interviews with two women who have accused him of sexual assault. The lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday alleges nobody at the company investigated or adequately fact-checked the allegations made by Meredith Watson or Vanessa Tyson before airing them. It says CBS’s actions have damaged Fairfax’s reputation and ability to earn a living. Fairfax has adamantly denied the women’s allegations and said their actions were politically motivated. The women leveled their allegations at a moment when he seemed poised to ascend to the governor’s post. Virginia’s governor was facing calls to resign over a racist photo. The Associated Press sent a request for comment to CBS.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring says consumers should be wary about a newly launched product marketed as a way for victims to self-administer a sex assault evidence kit. Herring’s office said in a news release Tuesday that evidence from that type of kit could be ruled inadmissible in a criminal proceeding because of chain of custody issues. The news release also says the products could delay or prevent survivors from connecting with health care resources and sources of support. Herring’s office says other attorneys general from around the county as well as survivors’ advocacy organizations have warned against using the products.
NEWS RELEASE: – A jury in U.S. District Court in Abingdon convicted an inmate at Red Onion State Prison of sending threatening communications through the mail following the conclusion of a one-day jury trial, United States Attorney Thomas T. Cullen announced. Randall J. Keystone, 55, was convicted yesterday of two counts of transmitting in interstate commerce a communication containing a threat to injure another person.
“Communicating threats of death or bodily harm is a serious federal crime and one that we will aggressively prosecute,” U.S. Attorney Cullen stated today. “I am grateful for the hard work of the U.S. Marshals Service and the Virginia Department of Corrections in bringing this defendant to justice.”
According to evidence presented at trial, Keystone, while incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison, sent a pair of threatening letters to the former state prosecutor who handled his case in the late 1990s. The former state prosecutor, who is now an Assistant United States Attorney in North Carolina, received one letter at his home and one at his office.
In both letters, written on or about January 11, 2017, Keystone wrote, “How’d you like someone to put a bullit [sic] in your head? How’d you like me to be the one to do it?”
The investigation of the case was conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service for the Western District of Virginia and Eastern District of North Carolina and the Virginia Department of Corrections. Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer R. Bockhorst and Cagle Juhan are prosecuting the case for the United States.
James Fields, Jr.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The man convicted of ramming his car into a crowd protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been ordered to pay about $75,000 to some of his victims. The Daily Progress reports a federal court released the restitution agreement for James Fields on Monday.The agreement says four victims of the 2017 attack are to receive amounts ranging from about $3,500 to about $60,000. In total, the white supremacist must pay about $75,800.According to the agreement, all of the victims were informed of their rights to seek restitution.
The car attack came after authorities forced the rally to disband. Anti-racist demonstrators were peacefully marching when Fields plowed into them, killing Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others. He’s been convicted of murder, hate crimes and other charges.
While back to school season may be over, experts say future college students should be careful about scholarship scams. WFIR’s Clark Palmer has that story.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Three couples planning to get married in Virginia have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a state requirement that they disclose their race on their marriage application. Lawyer Victor Glasberg says the requirement is a vestige of Virginia’s Jim Crow laws and that Virginia is one of only eight states requiring marriage applicants to disclose their race. He filed the lawsuit Thursday in Alexandria. According to the lawsuit, one Virginia county provided a list of more than 200 potential races to a couple that questioned the requirement. It included “American,” ″Aryan,” ″Moor” and “Mulatto.” A spokesman for Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the office will examine the complaint closely and determine how to proceed. Glasberg says he does not think Herring should defend the law.