The trial for a West Virginia man charged with murder in the fatal shooting a police officer has begun after a judge denied a motion to move proceedings out of Kanawha County.
The trial for a West Virginia man charged with murder in the fatal shooting a police officer has begun after a judge denied a motion to move proceedings out of Kanawha County.
Testimony began Monday in the trial of Joshua Phillips, who is charged with killing Charleston Police Officer Cassie Johnson, 28, in 2020 when she responded to a parking lot complaint, news outlets reported.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey denied a defense motion to move the trial, saying the standard is not whether jurors know the facts of the case but whether they held such fixed opinions that they could not impartially judge the defendant.
“I find that we have a group of potential jurors that have indicated they can be fair and impartial in consideration of this case,” she said.
A jury of nine women and four men heard opening statements in which defense attorney John Sullivan said the question in the case is not whether Phillips shot Johnson, but whether he did so deliberately and maliciously. Sullivan said Phillips was acting in “fear and self-defense.”
Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Michele Drummond said the state will present evidence that Johnson was worried about her safety leading up to the shooting. Drummond said Phillips pulled a gun, prevented Johnson from getting to her gun and struggled with her before shots were fired.
A Nicholas County Sheriff’s Deputy was killed and another injured in an officer involved shooting Friday evening in Birch River. One suspect was killed, according to the West Virginia State Police, and a second was wounded.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Updated on June 4, 2022 at 11:35 a.m.
Nicholas County Sheriff William F. Nunley released the following statement:
On June 3, 2022, Nicholas County Sheriff Deputies responded to a domestic disturbance in the Birch River area around 5pm. Upon arrival, deputies made contact with Ritchie Holcomb (DOB 12/77/85) and Tyler Kelly (DOB 04/25/94) located in a camper. The two came out of the camper talking with deputies, at some point the suspects became agitated running back into the camper.
Deputies pursued them into the camper discharging a taser. The suspects then began firing at officers, officers backed out of the camper where shots fired continued. Deputy Tom Baker was struck in the back, while Cpl. J. Ellison was struck in the leg. Baker passed due to his injuries. Ellison was treated for the gunshot wound and released. Holcomb passed due to his injuries, Kelly was taken into custody after a short standoff and physical altercation.
The West Virginia State Police is currently working the investigation regarding the shot officers.
A Nicholas County Sheriff’s Deputy was killed and another injured in an officer involved shooting Friday evening in Birch River. One suspect was killed, according to the West Virginia State Police, and a second was wounded.
At 7:43 p.m., deputies responded to an active shooter call according to a post on the Wilderness Fire Departments web page. The two deputies initially went to the Birch River home to serve a warrant when two suspects inside opened fire, according to media reports.
Brent Tyler Kelly, 28, has been charged with first-degree murder and is currently in Central Regional Jail under no bond. The name of the shooter who died has not been released.
The names of the deputies have not been officially released.
Gov. Jim Justice released a statement about the shooting.
“Cathy and I ask all West Virginians to keep Nicholas County in your prayers right now,” he said. “Tragically, a Nicholas County Deputy was shot and killed when responding to an incident earlier tonight. Another deputy is in critical condition. Both deputies were airlifted to the hospital.”
***Editor’s note: This story was updated to include a press release from the Nicholas County sheriff.
A Nicholas County delegate has announced he is leaving his seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates, months before the 2020 general election.
The resignation from Del. Jordan Hill, R-Nicholas, will become effective May 28. In a news release from House Communications Director Jared Hunt, Hill said he was leaving after five and a half years for a job outside of the 41st district, which encompasses parts of Nicholas and Greenbrier counties.
“I thank the people of the 41st District for giving me the opportunity to be their voice in the Legislature,” Hill said in the statement. “We’ve accomplished a great deal to move our state forward since 2015, and I know that momentum will continue into the future.”
In the most recent legislative session, Hill chaired the House Health and Human Resources committee, which passed a bill he co-sponsored capping monthly insulin copayments at $100 dollars, and another bill promising $16.9 million for foster care reform.
Going forward, executive director Byron Fisher for the West Virginia Republican Party said the 41st District Republican Executive Committee will be taking applications for a replacement to occupy Hill’s seat until the end of his term.
The committee must have three recommendations for Gov. Jim Justice by June 12, leaving him five days to select someone.
Hill announced on the last day of the 2020 session he was not planning to run for another term. With less than a month until the June 9 primary, Heather Tully from Summersville is running unopposed for the Republican nomination.
Duane Bragg in Tioga also runs unopposed for the Democratic nomination in the 41st District.
Only eight months after launching West Virginia’s first family treatment court, Boone County Judge William Thompson said the coronavirus pandemic caused some drastic changes to the program.
Family treatment court is a “problem solving court.” Instead of punishing parents in the abuse and neglect system for their addiction, it connects them to treatment options and resources to improve their parenting.
The goal, Thompson said, is to help parents reach recovery and get their kids back. As parents progress through the program, which consists of weekly meetings with himself and daily contact with a county case coordinator, they get more visits with their kids, until they’re ready for reunification.
Boone County had reunited its first family and was almost ready to reunite others, when COVID-19 hit West Virginia, causing the state to end most in-person court hearings and visitations for families with children in foster care.
“We had one young mother today who’s doing wonderful in the program and is at the point to be considered for reunification,” Thompson recalled from one of his weekly meetings, which he now conducts over phone and video conferencing. “And probably, but for the coronavirus, she would have had her child back with her at this point.”
In one meeting, the mother talked about learning her child had crawled for the first time.
“You could tell that for the mother, it was great that the baby crawled,” Thompson said, “but you could also tell it was breaking her heart that she didn’t get to see it.”
Hearing From The First Court
Thompson’s court was the first of five to launch family treatment court in West Virginia.
Advocates for the program say it could reduce the number of children in the state’s overwhelmed foster care system, who often are removed from their homes due to issues related to substance use disorder.
The programs were showing promising results, but now that the coronavirus crisis has restricted in-person gatherings, these five courts and their participants have been forced to adapt quickly. Inpatient treatment options are limited, and most outpatient appointments have moved to telehealth.
“While not perfect, and not ideal, we are doing the best we can in these circumstances,” said Thompson.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
West Virginia Public Broadcasting visited the Boone County Courthouse in August, before the first family treatment court in the state was launched.
On March 20, the state Department of Health and Human Resources began advising virtual visits instead of physical visits, for families involved with Child Protective Services. Many parents with children in foster care haven’t been able to see their kids since then.
Some families whose children are in kinship placement, either with a family member or family friend, have been allowed some visits with the court’s permission.
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals issued an order on March 22 declaring a judicial emergency, which halted all nonessential, in-person hearings until May 15. The supreme court issued another order on Wednesday, allowing in-person hearings to resume on or after Monday, May 18.
Parents, Kids Face Digital Divide
In normal circumstances, family treatment court functions best when parents can maintain regular visits with their kids. According to Chautle Haught, who leads family treatment courts for the state supreme court, the strength of this program hinges on developing healthier, more nurturing relationships.
“We require these participants to be involved,” Haught said. “We want them at every doctor’s appointment, every school function. We want them present in their childrens’ lives, as much as they can, as long as there’s no safety concerns.”
She compared family treatment court to other problem-solving programs, like the adult and juvenile drug courts that already are active in West Virginia, helping people avoid incarceration for addiction-related crimes.
“The difference with us is that our courts are involved in the civil proceedings, not the criminal proceedings that your adult drug courts and juvenile drug courts are,” Haught said. Instead of jail or prison time, she said, parents in family treatment court risk losing custody of their children.
Even in a pandemic, Haught said parents have made excellent progress in their recovery from addiction.
With school events and appointments on hold, courts are increasing the number of video visits parents have with kids.
“We’re doing lots of telephone visits, we’ve got some of our foster parents equipped with the same type of technology for Zoom and Skype platforms,” said Judge Thompson in Boone County. “But that’s been by far the most difficult part. I have a participant who’s doing everything they’re supposed to be doing. And I can’t get them the in-person physical visits that they deserve.”
Roane County Judge Anita Harold Ashley, who launched her family treatment court in January, agreed her four participating families struggle the most with not seeing their kids — especially since many Roane County residents have a hard time regularly tuning into video calls, due to unreliable broadband access.
“With the fact that there’s really poor internet service, and most folks have bad cell service, it just breaks my heart if they’re not seeing their kids,” Ashley said.
An Inconvenient Time For A Global Pandemic
These challenges come just as family treatment courts were starting to show some promising results. The supreme court reports there are 50 adults involved in Boone, Nicholas, Ohio, Randolph and Roane counties, with roughly 100 to 150 children between them.
Boone County has 16 adult participants and roughly 25 children involved.
Other, newer courts have said they hope to have the same success. Like Nicholas County, which was the fifth in the state to launch a family treatment court in late February.
Stephanie Smith is the Nicholas County family treatment court case coordinator. Like Boone and Roane counties, she said the Nicholas County program is different now than the one they planned for earlier this year.
“We’ll be excited when we can safely get back to doing things like normal,” Smith said. “But until then, we’re just chugging along and everybody’s hanging in there, making it work right now.”
Smith still conducts home visits with adult participants every week. Sometimes, she brings others from the family treatment court team with her.
“I talk to them [the participants] every day, multiple times a day, phone calls, text, whatever,” Smith said of the parents. “When I went out there, I mean, you could just tell that they really enjoyed that face to face contact … It really made a difference.”
Recovery ‘Difficult Enough’ In Normal Time, Challenging During COVID-19
Most of the resources parents are connected to — namely, those for addiction treatment and parenting skills — have moved online or become remote. Sweat patches that last two weeks have replaced regular drug testing, for example.
When the patches need to be changed in Nicholas County, the participants can visit the local Day Report center, which is still open to those in family treatment court and the criminal justice system, dealing with addiction.
“It’s difficult enough when it’s a normal time, trying to keep people sober and making sure they don’t OD [overdose] or anything like that,” said Nicholas County Day Report Center Director Gary Jarrell.
Individuals reporting to the center who are involved with the criminal justice system check in on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Jarrell said.
For them and family treatment court participants, the center has a recovery specialist on staff, who holds video meetings every week.
For those who need intensive inpatient care, Haught at the state supreme court said she’s in touch with probation services and their connections throughout the state.
The situation isn’t perfect, but there’s still evidence that families are benefiting from this program, according to Ohio County Family Treatment Court Coordinator Erin Jordan.
“There are some things that may not quite be able to happen,” Jordan said. “But they’re still going through their milestones. Some people have still advanced during all of this.”
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Judge William Thompson sits behind his desk in August.
In Boone County, Thompson noted parents are opening up more, and supporting each other in their weekly calls.
“They have sort of formed their own support system where they’ll depend on one another,” Thompson said. “It’s a stressful time, but they understand each other.”
Ohio County has even found a way to make family calls work, Jordan said, using money from grants that went to the five pilot counties, to support participants and provide incentives for their recoveries.
“We’ve ordered books, one for the child, one for the parent,” she said. “That way, with a video chat, the parents can read the book and the child can have the same book in their hands, looking at the pictures at the same time.”
Gov. Jim Justice’s office announced on Friday West Virginia will receive more than $131 million to replace schools in Nicholas County destroyed by flooding in 2016.
The money comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] and will be used to replace Summersville Middle School, Richwood Middle School and Richwood High School, according to an announcement from Justice.
“I will continue to fight to bring every resource possible to restore the areas ravaged by this disaster,” Justice said in the release.
The award also positions West Virginia to seek an adjustment that would allow it to pay only 10 percent of the total cost of rebuilding schools in Kanawha and Nicholas Counties, rather than the normally required 25 percent. The reduction is subject to FEMA approval.
On January 27, 1925, the Reverend Bernard Coffindaffer was born at Craigsville in Nicholas County.
During World War II, he served in the Marines and was wounded on Iwo Jima. After the war, he returned to West Virginia and amassed a small fortune through a coal-washing business.
At age 59, he was taking a nap one day and had a profound religious experience. He later recalled that the spirit of God had told him to build crosses across the countryside—beginning in West Virginia and then extending to all 50 states. He promptly sold his business interests and founded Cast Thy Bread, a nonprofit organization that erected prefabricated crosses.
He built the crosses in groups of three to symbolize the crucifixion of Jesus. A yellow cross was erected in the middle, surrounded by two blue ones. At one point, nearly 1,900 clusters of these crosses could be found in West Virginia and in other states and countries. He poured millions of his own money into the effort until he was broke. Coffindaffer died of a heart attack in 1993 at the age of 68.
