Category: Portfolio.

Possible motive revealed in murder trial

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FRONT ROYAL — The inmate that murder defendant Clay Marshall Curtis allegedly confessed to while in Rappahannock-Shenandoah-Warren Regional Jail testified on Wednesday to what he heard from Curtis about the December 2014 shooting death of Front Royal cab driver Simon Funk.

According to the inmate, Curtis approached the inmate’s cell door and mentioned hearing about the inmate’s marital problems. The inmate testified that Curtis said to him through the cell door, “You can’t trust women.” The inmate added that Curtis began complaining about the wife he had while he was in federal prison.

Defense attorney David Hensley shouted his objection at the mention of federal prison, as the jury is not allowed to know of any prior convictions a defendant may have had. At Circuit Judge Clifford L. Athey Jr. denied Hensley’s motion for a mistrial.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Layton took a moment outside the presence of the jury to talk to the inmate on the stand about what he is and is not allowed to say when giving his testimony.

Athey ordered the jury to disregard the part of the inmate’s testimony about Curtis’ time in federal prison.

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Murder scene details emerge in trial

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FRONT ROYAL — Several prosecution witnesses described Monday at the murder trial of Clay Marshall Curtis what they found at the December 2014 crime scene where the body of Front Royal cab driver Simon Funk was found.

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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Man testifies defendant tried to hit him with van

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FRONT ROYAL — The alleged victim in an attempted murder charge filed against Clay Marshall Curtis — in addition to the first-degree murder charge Marshall is facing — testified on Monday about his version of the December 2014 case.

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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‘Know Your Neighbor Iftar’: Muslim community ends Ramadan by sharing dinner with neighbors

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Those attending Friday night’s iftar in Winchester were encouraged to try some of the Middle-Eastern food at the buffet, including chickpeas, lamb, rice, chicken and a variety of vegetables and fruit salads. Briahnna Brown/Daily

WINCHESTER — People of all faiths came together Friday night in the basement of the Grace Lutheran Church to celebrate a communal dinner on the night before the last day of Ramadan.

The Know Your Neighbor Iftar, or breaking of the Ramadan fast, was put together by Hussein Rashwan, a member of the Muslim community in Winchester, and sponsored by the Islamic Society of Winchester and the Valley Interfaith Council. Nearly 60 people came out to enjoy the meal with family, friends, neighbors and strangers, and it is a tradition that Rashwan said he hopes to continue every year.

Winchester Mayor John David Smith Jr. spoke at Friday night’s event, expressing his enthusiasm for the meal to come but also for the way the interfaith community came together to celebrate the event.

“I think in this day and time that we’re living in right now, with ISIS and some of the Christian organizations out there — with all the strife that’s going on, for something like this to happen in Winchester, it makes my heart warm,” Smith said in his speech. “I know that there are possibilities out there that we all can live together.”

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ChildSafe Center plans late summer opening

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ChildSafe board member Trae Vickers, counselor Monica Johns and ChildSafe Executive Director Kelly Bober stand on the porch of the new ChildSafe Center in Woodstock. Briahnna Brown/Daily

WOODSTOCK — For families in Shenandoah County, access to child abuse treatment centers has been a problem, with many unable to afford making regular trips to the ChildSafe Center in Winchester, leaving their children without the counseling they need.

The new satellite center in Woodstock aims to solve that problem.

Kelly Bober, executive director of ChildSafe, said the satellite center at 316 S. Main St. has much more of a “country cottage” look than than the urban warehouse appearance of ChildSafe’s Winchester location. She said the Woodstock location is perfect for area families and children who would be much more comfortable in it than in a building like the one in Winchester.

“When a family and a child comes, it feels like a home and it doesn’t feel like an investigative agency,” Bober said. “We want it to feel welcoming.”

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Diner robber pleads guilty to all charges

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Raymond Washington

WOODSTOCK —  An Edinburg man pleaded guilty Wednesday to five charges he was facing after he attempted to rob Ben’s Diner in Woodstock in January.

Raymond Lamar Washington, 27, had not signed a plea agreement when he entered guilty pleas that eliminated the need for a jury trial that had been scheduled for Friday. The three other defendants charged in the incident — Andrea Scalf, Andrew Shoemaker and Leonard “Spoon” Garris — testified during Scalf’s trial that Washington was the one with the gun during the robbery, and the one who attempted to kick in the door to the diner’s back room.

Shoemaker and Garris also testified that Washington was the one who devised the plan to rob the diner and had motive to do so because he was trying to flee the state and avoid penalties in other criminal cases pending against him.

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Getaway driver found guilty on diner robbery charges

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Andrea Scalf

WOODSTOCK — More than week after postponing his verdict, Circuit Judge Dennis L. Hupp on Friday found a Woodstock woman guilty on three charges after determining she was the getaway driver in the attempted robbery of Ben’s Diner in January.

Hupp delivered his verdict after hearing testimony on May 25 and closing arguments Friday from Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Louis Campola and defense attorney Margarita Wood. Wood represented the defendant, Andrea Scalf.

Scalf, 43, was identified by two witnesses during the bench trial as the person who came up with the idea to rob Ben’s Diner; she had worked there in the past, and her teenage daughter was working there at the time of the attempted robbery.

Scalf’s daughter was the first witness to testify for the prosecution during the May 25 bench trial. She said that three men walked into the diner wearing dark clothing with their faces covered, and one man pointed a gun in her face and demanded money. Once she told them that the money was in the office, he held the gun to her back as she showed two of the men where it was – one man stayed by the door as lookout. Since the office door was locked, the two men tried kicking it down. When they were unsuccessful, they all fled the diner.

Scalf was crying, with her face in her hands, during her daughter’s account of what happened that night. Scalf then watched as her daughter stepped down from the witness stand and walked out of the courtroom, avoiding her mother’s gaze the entire time.

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Teen accused of stabbing Edinburg woman, 2 daughters

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Shenandoah County Sheriffs deputy Derek Smith stands outside a minivan at the Edinburg Town Park on Thursday night after a woman and her two children were attacked. Rich Cooley/Daily

EDINBURG — An 18-year-old Edinburg man has been charged with stabbing a mother and her two young children in the town park on Thursday evening.

The Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office arrested Samual Jacob Homer, 18, at the park Thursday and he has been charged with three felony counts of aggravated malicious wounding.

The three victims — a 27-year-old Edinburg woman and her two children, a 5-year-old girl and a 1-year-old girl — are in stable condition, Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy C. Carter said at a news conference Friday.

He also elaborated on a statement he made Thursday night from the scene when he said that the victim did not know Homer. Carter said the woman who was attacked was able to identify her assailant, but could not confirm if she recognized who Homer was.

“When you hear of this incident, one would instantly think that there must be a relationship or it might be a domestic relationship or something like that,” Carter said. “That is not the case.”

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Edinburg man found guilty on one of two rape charges

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Patrick Wakeman

WOODSTOCK — After less than two hours of deliberation on Tuesday, a jury unanimously found Patrick “P.J.” Wakeman, 40, of Edinburg, guilty on one of two counts of rape he was facing.

The jury declared a not guilty verdict on the charge of rape relating to the first of two encounters and found Wakeman guilty on the charge relating to the second encounter.

The courtroom was silent as the verdict was read by the clerk, and both the victim and Wakeman’s family kept their composure at first. The victim’s family members were tearful on the stand during the penalty phase of the trial, which followed the verdict. They told the jury about how the incident has broken their family and made their lives difficult.

“I’ll never forgive you,” the victim’s mother said angrily as she looked directly at Wakeman.

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Woman claims to be target of hate crime in Front Royal

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Christel Guillen, who was staying at Tareq Salahi’s home through Airbnb, found the clothing seen here, with the shirt’s arms tied with rope and a black cloth sack (as a head), behind the house. She says it is an effigy of a simulated lynching. Courtesy photo by Christel Guillen

FRONT ROYAL — Christel Guillen and three of her colleagues, all of whom are people of color, visited Front Royal in early April for a three-night stay at Tareq Salahi’s home through Airbnb for a work retreat, but awoke after the second night to find an effigy depicting a lynching in the back yard.

The group is working on starting an alternative school in Washington, D.C., that aims to help what Guillen calls “black and brown” youth and will focus heavily on understanding institutionalized racism. The four rarely have time to work all together on this project, so she said they planned a work retreat that wouldn’t be too far from D.C., and chose Salahi’s home.

Guillen, 32, said she woke up on the morning of April 8 looking to relax on the hammock behind the house in an open picnic area, and was taking an Instagram live video on her walk down the trail. She returned to the house after forgetting something, and on her way back down the path to the hammock is when she said she saw on the ground the boots, jeans, flannel shirt and black cloth sack (as a head) tied up with rope to simulate a lynching

“Right away I started realizing how fresh it looked,” Guillen said, noting that it did not have any debris from the trail or the storm that weekend. “I started feeling like this was left for us intentionally because of how fresh it was.”

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