Category: Crime, Courts & Cops.

For the six localities that make up this area – Winchester and the counties of Frederick, Clarke, Shenandoah, Page and Warren – data shows that  halfway through the year, overdose rates are at the full-year totals seen in 2015 and 2016.

There was only one death from a drug overdose in 2012, which has been marked as the beginning of the opioid problem, according to data from the Northwest Regional Drug Task Force, and that number jumped to 21 in 2013. In 2014, there were 33 opioid overdose deaths, and there were 30 fatal overdoses in both 2015 and 2016.

In past years, non-fatal overdoses rose dramatically as well. In 2012 there were only 18 non-fatal overdoses, but by 2013, there were 100, Cummings said. “Those numbers decreased in the next two years, with 73 non-fatal overdoses in 2014 and 55 in 2015. That number more than doubled in 2016, with 125 reported non-fatal overdoses in the area.

In 2017 to date, there have been 28 fatal opioid  overdoses, and, as of July 5, there have been 105 non-fatal opioid overdoses.

Lauren Cummings, executive director of the Northern Shenandoah Valley Substance Abuse Coalition, said the trend in non-fatal overdose rate is undeniably bleak. “We had hoped that we would never exceed our numbers that we saw in 2013,”Cummings said of the non-fatal overdose rate. “We’re on track to possibly even, unfortunately, doubling our numbers from 2013.”

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Nancy Ellen Jinkins, 52, is also the principal operator of Ardellen Animal Abode, a registered nonprofit animal rescue that lists its main address as Jinkins’ New Market home on the 9500 block of South Congress Street. Her nonprofit was registered by the IRS in November 2016, and has no reported finances yet.

The criminal complaint alleges that on June 29 Jinkins’ home had to be condemned by the Shenandoah County fire marshal because the residence had “extremely high”levels of ammonia – a statement from the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office reported ammonia levels at 100 parts per million.

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The jury chose the maximum punishment, and recommended life imprisonment with a $100,000 fine.

Curtis, 64, was found not guilty on a related charge of attempted second-degree murder stemming from accusations that he attempted to hit Jeff Sisler, also of Front Royal, with a van belonging to Funk.

The jury unanimously agreed that Curtis killed Funk, that the killing was malicious, deliberate and premeditated, and therefore found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder. Curtis was also convicted of using a firearm in the commission of a felony.

The jury had the option of finding Curtis guilty on a lesser charge of second-degree murder, which does not require premeditation, or voluntary manslaughter, which would include a crime of passion or a killing during combat. They did not choose those options, however.

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Winchester Police Officer Jason Poe, who was a sergeant with the Warren County Sheriff’s Office at the time of the murder, was the first to discover the body on the property in the Shenandoah Farms subdivision in Front Royal, where Curtis’ sister lived at the time.

Poe testified that he saw a spot in the woods on the night of Dec. 9 that stood out to him because, at that time of year, the woods would have “settled.”

“It didn’t sit right with me,” Poe said of the spot where the body was later discovered.

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Jeff Sisler — who lived across the street from Curtis’ sister, where the body of Front Royal cab driver Simon Funk was found — testified that on the night of the fatal shooting, while Curtis was in Funk’s van, Curtis attempted to hit and drive over Sisler with the van.

Sisler testified that Curtis’ sister had called Sisler and asked him to investigate a disturbance on her property the night of Dec. 9, 2014. He said that he saw the van at the base of her estimated 150-foot driveway, and did not see anyone inside. He said he walked up to Curtis’ sister, who was standing at her front door with a phone in one hand and a gun in the other.

He then saw a flashlight from the woods next to the residence going toward the van. Sisler, who was wearing dark clothing on what he described as a pitch-black night, tried to sneak up on the van after telling Curtis’ sister to contact the police. Sisler said he saw Curtis behind the steering wheel and asked who he was, and Curtis then identified himself.

“I’ve come to pay my sister a visit,” Curtis responded, according to Sisler, in a “nasty tone.”

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