| FIREARMS CHARGE - A Roanoke, West Virginia, man was sentenced to over one year in prison for a firearms charged Thursday.
According to U.S. Attorney Bill Powell, 25-year-old Dustin Watson was sentenced to 13 months in prison. He pleaded guilty to one county of unlawful possession of a firearm in May 2019.
Having previously been convicted of a felony and domestic violence, Watson admitted to having a .380 caliber pistol in October 2017 in Upshur County, Powell says.
Watson's case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), according Powell. Project Safe Neighborhoods is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.
MAN SHOOTS GIRLFRIEND - A Morgantown man was arrested after he allegedly shot his girlfriend in the shoulder on Tuesday.
According to the criminal complaint, deputies went to Cassville Mount Morris Road for a reported victim of a gunshot wound.
Deputies found the victim, and she had a gunshot would to her right shoulder, blood on her clothes and coming from her nose.
Deputies did a protective sweep of the home and found a blood trail from the front door to the bedroom. A handgun was found on the bed.
The victim's boyfriend, 45-year-old Richard Shahan Jr. was interviewed at the scene, according to the complaint. He admitted to shooting her.
Shahan first said that he was attempting to get the gun from her, according to deputies. He then changed his story and said that he tried to kill her.
Neighbors on scene said that Shahan told the victim, "Tell them I didn't shoot you" before deputies arrived, the complaint states.
Shahan has been charged with malicious assault. He is being held at North Central Regional Jail.
PARKERSBURG MURDER - Michael Leadmon said the original motive of himself and a 17-year old juvenile, was to break into Karen Yeager's home, and help themselves to whatever items of value they could find.
"It was to take things from her, rob her," explained Leadmon, who entered a plea to an information charging him with second-degree murder in Yeager's death. He said he and the juvenile entered the home through a basement window.
When they did, they found the 68-year old resident of a Broad Street home in the living room. They told her to keep quiet, while Leadmon looked around the house.
"The second time I came back, she was unconscious on the couch," he said. "And (Leadmon's parther) said she was a fighter."
He then said the juvenile stabbed Yeager in the back. The two men then took her to the area of the Fifth Street Bridge.
"We dumped her over the culvert, towards the river," he said.
Prosecutor Pat Lefebure asked, "Did you take items from the house also?"
"I took jewelry, he took both of her guns."
The plea agreement Judge J.D. Beane is considering allows Leadmon to testify against "any and all parties" in the case.
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