West Virginia State Police said Powell told a trooper during an interview that she was at her father's house in Alderson and made cheese pizza for her kids and made a pepperoni pizza for the man. She said she put a quarter-sized amount of ant killer on his pizza because "she just wanted him to suffer a little," the complaint said.
The complaint said a Lewisburg police officer told a trooper the man came to the police department on Aug. 14 and was throwing up violently. He said Powell gave him an already opened bottle of Gatorade to drink, and he became ill after drinking it. Court records said the man was treated at Greenbrier Valley Medical Center, where medical personnel said he had symptoms consistent with being poisoned with Borax or Borate.
State Police said the man reported he looked at Powell's phone and saw a search history for "how toxic is clear liquid ant killer."
The man also told a trooper that Powell called him at one point and said she was promised $200,000 from the man's former girlfriend and another man to kill him. He claimed Powell told him the man drove to Beckley and obtained a liquid derived from a mushroom, which he gave her in a blue pill bottle, and she put the liquid in the Gatorade the man drank, the complaint said.
Court records said the man also reported that he was traveling from Virginia on Aug. 20 when a truck bumped his vehicle from behind and two people in the truck ordered him to get out of the vehicle. The man said he pulled out his own gun and fired a shot at the two people. He said he was then struck in the back of the head, but he managed to get out and run toward a guardrail. The man reported he then saw the two people leave the scene.
Later, he said he received a message from Powell who asked him, "Did you get your truck." The man said he spoke with Powell by telephone and she said she didn't know who was in the truck, but they "got the same deal she did." The complaint said the man reported Powell told him the plan was to take him to a cave in Fort Spriggs.
State Police said Powell denied in a first interview that she tried to harm the man but said she later admitted to putting poison on the pizza.
Powell was arraigned in Greenbrier County Magistrate Court and was released on a $5,000 bond.
WVU THREAT -
WVU Police Chief W.P. Chedester has released the following statement after a student was charged with making terroristic threats:
"When statements like these are brought to our attention, we act quickly. We don't take any chances, and that's how we responded in this case."
21-year-old Zachary Johnson, of Preston County, was in a class on the university's Health Science Center campus when he allegedly said he felt like "going home and getting my gun and killing everybody," and that he felt like "doing a mass shooting."
