Today in a Christiansburg courtroom, Judge Ray Grubbs upheld a jury’s recommendation that William Morva, the man who shot and killed a Montgomery County sheriff’s deputy and another man, receive the death penalty. Morva had been in police custody awaiting trial for armed robbery when he was admitted to Montgomery County Regional Hospital for treatment of a broken ankle. He escaped by stealing an officer’s sidearm, shooting hospital orderly Derrick McFarland, 32, in the hospital and former Albemarle County deputy Eric Sutphin, 40, along a walking trail near the Virginia Tech campus.

The manhunt shut down Virginia Tech on the first day of classes, a scene that later seemed eerily prophetic when a Tech student shot and killed 32 students and faculty less than eight months later on April 16, 2007.

Prior to his high-profile escape, Morva was well known to Virginia Tech students and to the Blacksburg community at large as a disturbing outspoken individual whose (more)

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Legendary guitarist, songwriter, and former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty brings his summer tour to the Charlottesville Pavilion Sunday, August 24. Tickets, which go on sale this Friday, June 27, at 10am, range from $37 to $69.

When he was growing up in California, it would have been natural for Fogerty’s musical inclinations to skew toward the Pacific, given the popularity of west coast contemporaries like the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. However, he and his brother Tom– more at home waist-deep in the music of the Mississippi delta and R & B– formed Creedence Clearwater Revival. The group had to take a hiatus when Fogerty served in the military until being discharged in 1968.

That same year, CCR released their self-titled debut album, spawning their first top 40 hit, “Suzie Q,” the first of several mega singles for the swamp-rock quartet that included “Bad Moon Rising,” “Green River,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” “Travelin’ Band,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain?” “Up Around the Bend,” “Looking out My Back Door,” “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?,” and “Proud Mary,” which charted twice, once as a CCR hit and again a year later as a smash for Ike & Tina Turner.

Fraternal acrimony eventually drove CCR apart, and Fogerty kept a low profile through most of the ’70s. He re-emerged in a big way in 1985 with (more)

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Where does a Lexington beauty queen go to shop? The Downtown Mall! Yesterday afternoon, Spring Street boutique welcomed Kelsee Grant, who was crowned Miss Virginia Junior Teen at Richmond’s Scottish Rite Auditorium nearly two months ago. The 15-year-old (left) stopped by the boutique to pick up a dress for the 2008 Miss Junior Teen United States pageant in Las Vegas July 12-18.

“It just won me over!” Grant says of the white and black Helen Wang frock she chose– despite its $496 price tag. “It’s unique, classy, fun. I had to have it, no matter what the cost.”

Grant, a rising sophomore at Rockbridge County High School in Lexington, encountered Spring Street at a recent photoshoot for V Magazine for Women. The pageant director asked Spring Street’s owner, Cynthia Schroeder, to outfit the recently crowned Miss Virginia, Miss Teen, Miss Junior Teen and Ms Virginia winners for the shoot. As a pageant contestant since she was one year old, Grant admits she “never was the best until one day it all clicked.” Grant will wear the dress to the first day of pageant orientation– “There are always roaming judges,” she says, “so it’s important to look your best at all times.”

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Fans of The Flat’s cr��pes will soon have another location to enjoy Lauren McRaven’s creations, as the chef has moved underground to head up the kitchen at Gravity Lounge.

“I love Gravity, and I want it to do well,” says McRaven, who will also continue to flip crepes at The Flat.

McRaven has not set the final menu for Gravity but plans to revamp the current menu entirely, and stay away from the microwave. In addition to featuring signature sandwiches, the new menu will offer appetizers and salads.

The simple menu suits the kitchen’s role as a supplement to Gravity’s other functions. “Gravity Lounge is essentially a music venue and bar– it’s not somewhere you would go for a sit-down meal,” McRaven says.

While McRaven has been working in the Gravity kitchen for a couple of weeks to ease the transition, the new menu will officially debut (more)

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The man shot in a pre-dawn raid by police looking for suspects who had been taking pot shots at vehicles on Interstate 64 will not be charged, nor will the Albemarle County police officer who shot him, Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford announced June 19.

Virginia State Police concluded their investigation of the raid on Yonder Hill Farm in Crozet, where Slade Woodson, 19, was arrested for a March 27 shooting rampage that stretched from I-64 and western Albemarle to Waynesboro.

At approximately 4:38am March 28, State Police and Albemarle tactical units served a warrant at the farm off Lanetown Road, and farm manager Edgar Dawson was shot by Albemarle Officer Michael Easton.

Lunsford issued a release in which she contends that members of both teams identified themselves multiple times before entering the house and again as they entered. Once inside, Easton encountered Dawson holding a “large silver revolver with the gun extended in front of his body,” according to the release.

“Dawson did not lower or release his gun or retreat in any way despite repeated direction from the tactical team. Fearing that Dawson was going to discharge his gun, Officer Easton shot Dawson two times, and Dawson’s gun also discharged,” the release adds.

“We take issue with some of the claims [in the release],” says Dawson’s lawyer, Alexandria-based John Zwerling. “The perceptions of people who were sleeping are different. If [police] announced who they were, it wasn’t done in a way that made it to the people who were sleeping in their bedroom.”

And that’s where Dawson was shot, says Zwerling.

“He got up and got his gun because he didn’t know who it was,” says Zwerling. “He was standing beside his bed. He never raised it, but he got shot. It happened in a split second.”

In a June 19 letter to Virginia State Police, Lunsford says Dawson “appeared in a doorway” and then notes that after he was shot, he “fell onto the bed.”

This was the first public announcement that Dawson’s gun had fired, and apparently it discharged after he had been shot. “I believe so,” says Lunsford. “It’s unclear.”

The bullet from Dawson’s gun struck the door jam in a downward motion, she says, and went into the floor on Easton’s side of the door. Lunsford sees two scenarios for the discharge of Dawson’s gun.

“From my perspective, one, he was there intending to fire, and the officer shot first, or two, it was involuntary,” i.e. after he’d been shot in the arm. In either case, she surmises that Dawson’s finger was on the trigger.

Zwerling contends that Dawson did not intend to fire. “He wouldn’t have fired at the floor,” says Zwerling. “We think when the shot hit his arm, it went off.”

Wounded in the chest and in the arm, Dawson, who works as a mechanic, was taken to UVA Medical Center and is still recovering from nerve damage in his hand. “His right hand was permanently damaged,” says Zwerling. “He has feeling in his thumb and index finger. The other three are numb, and he can’t hold a wrench.”

This is the first case for Lunsford that involves a shooting by a cop. She decided not to press charges against Officer Easton because, she explains, “He was legally there executing a search warrant, and a man was pointing a gun at him in his doorway.”

As for charging Dawson, Lunsord considered “what a judge or a reasonable person on a jury might think,” she says. “It was 4:30am, he was asleep in his house, there was a lot of noise and commotion, and he was not sure what was going on.”

Albemarle police wore uniforms and vests with cloth badges and the word “Police” written in large letters on the chest. Easton carried a shield that also said “Police,” and when Dawson appeared, Easton held up the shield for protection, looking through the view box, according to the report. Two of the Dawsons’ dogs were barking, police were shouting, “Police,” “Search Warrant,” and the house was dark except for illumination carried by the tactical teams.

And according to Zwerling, police were wearing gear similar to miners’ lamps with high-intensity illumination. “Edgar would have been lit up and he couldn’t see anything,” says Zwerling.

Lunsford�€“ who became the county’s top prosecutor in January�€“ declined to comment on Zwerling’s disputation of official claims.

Zwerling commends Lunsford for not bringing charges. “This is a relief,” he says. “Just because you didn’t do anything wrong doesn’t mean you can’t be charged.”

And he offers a suggestion for Albemarle police. “I think they ought to rethink rapid entry because of the danger to the innocent�€“ and that a person will react as Mr. Dawson did is predictable.”

The mailbox at Yonder Hill Farm had been blown up a few months before the raid. “Someone is sleeping out in the country where there has been crime,” says Zwerling. “Someone comes smashing into your house and you have your holster near your bed.”

Adds the attorney, “He could have been killed.”

-updated 9:42am, June 24
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After years of working in the background, the Washington wordsmiths who crafted presidential addresses will emerge from the shadows later this week. White House speechwriters from Nixon through Clinton administrations will gather at a symposium hosted by the Miller Center of Public Affairs on Friday and Saturday.

The former speechwriters, who have moved on to careers as authors, political activists, and consultants, party insiders and journalists, will discuss White House communications. Panel session topics will be the major presidential addresses, including the Convention Acceptance Speech, the State of the Union, and the Inaugural Address.

Panelists include (more)

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Now that the NBA Finals are over, hoops fans are turning their attention eight days to the future for the NBA Draft on Thursday, June 26. Among those expecting to hear their names called is UVA fourth-year Sean Singletary, who forewent an early entry into the NBA last year in the hopes of raising his draft stock by completing his senior season with the Cavaliers.

Experts expect Singletary to be selected in the second round, but which team’s jersey Singletary will hoist remains unclear. This month the Newsplex reported the guard has workouts scheduled with the Charlotte Bobcats, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards (for whom fellow UVA alum Roger Mason plays), San Antonio Spurs, Portland Trail Blazers, Seattle Sonics, Detroit Pistons, and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Several more UVA athletes just learned of their professional fates earlier this month. Five players from the Cavalier baseball team were chosen among the (more)

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Two days before the 20th anniversary of the execution-style slaying of Roger Lee Shifflett, 38, at the now-demolished Southwind Gas and Grocery on Route 20 south, the man accused of his 1988 murder was granted $50,000 bond today in court.

Alvin Lee “Butch” Morris, 67, (pictured right) who’s been in jail since his May 15 arrest, appeared on video in Albemarle General District Court. Present in court was Roger Shifflett’s widow, Barbara, (left, background) who married Morris a year after her first husband’s June 20, 1988, murder, and Morris’ mother, Margaret Morris (left, foreground).

The bond hearing opened with Butch Morris’ attorney, Dana Slater, informing the court and Morris of her potential conflict of interest because she was working as an Albemarle County Police officer (more)

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So, it’s been 30 minutes, and the dog next door still won’t quit yapping. What now?

First, under the new Albemarle anti-barking law, you need to determine whether or not your neighbor’s property is five acres or larger. If not, you can proceed under the newly-approved barking ordinance.

Start by ignoring the address on Albemarle County’s website; the Charlottesville-Albemarle Magistrate’s office hasn’t been downtown for at least five years.

Now located at 1610 Avon Street, it’s next to the local jail. And although it’s supposedly open 24 hours a day, on the morning of our visit, June 16, we had to wait while something urgent was rushed to a courthouse downtown.

“Take a number,” jokes a man in front of me when the office finally reopens 40 minutes after my arrival.

Six chairs are lined up in a formation reminiscent of a passport line in (more)

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As the mastermind behind the monstrous effects seen in blockbusters such as Aliens, Terminator and this summer’s hit, Iron Man, four-time Academy Award winner Stan Winston (pictured at left, possibly imitating his famous egg-laying alien creation from Aliens) was widely regarded as the go-to guy in Hollywood for makeup and special effects. His death Sunday, June 15, in his Malibu home, of multiple myeloma, has left the film world mourning the loss of his talent and passion for cinema. He was 62.

“He was a big supporter of the film festival and loved speaking with the students,” Festival Artistic Director Richard Herskowitz says.

A UVA graduate with a major in painting and sculpting, Winston continued to support Charlottesville’s film scene as an avid participant in the Virginia Film Festival. He received the Virginia Film Award in 1999, when the Festival’s theme was TechnoVisions, and has been a member of the Festival’s advisory board ever since. Winston is firmly rooted in Charlottesville’s culture, as evidenced through his work as makeup effects director on the film Edward Scissorhands– during Edward’s (Johnny Depp) attempt to break into a house for his love, Kim (Winona Ryder), Depp is wearing a blue hat with the an orange Virginia V (pictured at right), a possible wink from Winston to his alma mater

This year’s recently announced festival theme, Aliens!, provides an appropriate opportunity for a tribute to Winston, as his 1999 festival appearance was to screen Aliens with star Sigourney Weaver (click photo at upper left to see Winston with Herskowitz and Weaver).

“We will (more)

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The thunderstorm that blew threw Greene County June 16 left behind a lot of hail, as these photos of Pirate Pete’s Miniature Golf by former Hook staffer Jeanne Siler indicate.

The mid-afternoon storm dropped so much hail that the Virginia Department of Transportation reported that it resorted to snowplows for clearing County roads. Additionally, Route 810 and Route 630 were closed due to high water, VDOT reported. While Greene County had no damage to public facilities, several businesses, such as car dealerships and Blue Ridge Trailers, reported hail-related losses.

Home of the pirate, Highlands Golf Park “lucked out,” according to Gretchen Scheuermann, one of the owners.

“Two cars in the driveway were dinged up, but in terms of our facility, there weren’t any broken windows or damaged siding,” Scheuermann says. “It was just kind of a mess.”

Indeed, the park was up-and-running immediately, as golfers were back on the course the following day despite wet facilities and some left-over hail.

Pirate Pete, of the miniature golf course, underwent some recuperation, in the form of a new paint job, as his wood and resin body retained some dings after the storm. “The pirate survived,” says a relieved Scheuermann.
–updated 10:09am, June 24

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Father’s Day should be a celebration, but for the father of Justine Swartz Abshire, a young woman who died on a winding country road in Orange County in November 2006, the apparent victim of a hit and run, the holiday is a bitter reminder that his daughter’s death remains an unsolved crime.

In March, police revealed Justine’s massive injuries were not consistent with a hit and run.

“We don’t feel she was standing in the road,” said Special Agent Mike Jones of Virginia State Police, citing an absence of “strike points,” leg injuries that correspond to a car or truck’s bumper.

Yesterday, Steven Swartz posted a letter on a memorial website, directly addressing the those responsible for her death.

“To my Daughter’s killer(s) and anyone else who may know what happened: you still have a chance to do the right thing and, in doing it, gain some measure of redemption. If you remain silent, then at best, guilt and misery will be your only legacy,” he writes. “It will infect you and the lives of those around you for generations to come.”

The investigation remains “very active” according to state police, and the $50,000 reward still stands.

“I will not go away, and I will never give up,” writes Swartz. “That’s my promise to Justine.”

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DES MOINES, IOWA— As the Des Moines River rose, the University of Virginia track and field team— in town to compete in the NCAA Track and Field Championships– joined citizens in daily ventures downtown to witness Iowa’s historic weather. Running downtown revealed overflowing sewer drains, restaurants desperately trying to stay in business while pumping water out of their basements and kitchens, and the ubiquitous sights of sandbags along streets, buildings, and bridges.

“Seeing the before and after effects of the flood was amazing,” says UVA third-year and newly-minted All-American discus thrower Billie Jo Grant. “To see how the city was affected economically, in addition to all the flooding, showed the depth of the effects natural disasters can have.”

The four-day athletic event was projected to bring in millions of dollars in revenue for local hotels and restaurants, and although the games would eventually go on, the evacuation of the some hotels, including the Embassy Suites along the Des Moines River meant that 12 schools (not UVA) had to find other accommodations.

Several teams, such as the University of Washington and the University of South Carolina, took time (more)

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Two-and-a-half years after a 48-year-old Madison man died of a heart attack on a treadmill at Gold’s Gym in Culpeper, his widow’s vision of placing Automated External Defibrillators, or AEDs, in all public buildings is coming true in Charlottesville. This month, the City began installing the life-saving devices– which deliver an electrical shock to an irregularly beating heart and increase a cardiac arrest victim’s survival rate by as much as 85 percent– in public buildings throughout the city, including in schools, rec centers, parks, and City government offices.

“It’s awesome,” says Susan Murphy, the widow who just weeks before her husband’s death in January 2006, called the Hook suggesting an article about AEDs. Her husband, Henry DeJarnette (pictured right), had recently been diagnosed with a congenital heart murmur and heart disease, and Gold’s Gym, where the couple worked out daily, had refused to purchase a device, she said, despite her repeated requests.

Less than two weeks after her first call, Murphy called again, this time sobbing. Henry, she said, had suffered a heart attack right in front of her while running on the treadmill at Gold’s in Culpeper. She’d left her own AED in the car, and by the time she raced to retrieve it and applied it to her prone husband’s chest– she estimates several minutes had elapsed– it was too late. Henry was dead.
The now-remarried Murphy– who was then known as Susan DeJarnette– told her story in a Hook cover story ["Heartbreak: Could a simple device have saved this man's life," February 9, 2006], and urged (more)

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In three months, Charlottesville will get a little bit country, and a little bit rock ‘n roll. But sorry Donny and Marie fans, this double-bill is more Texas than Utah: Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Famers ZZ Top will share the stage with perennially chart-topping country duo Brooks & Dunn on Sunday, September 7 at 7pm at John Paul Jones Arena. Tickets go on sale this Saturday, June 21 and range from $49.50 to $65, plus various fees.

Unlike many of its contemporaries, ZZ Top’s success was far from overnight. Forming in the early ’60s and recording its first album in 1971, the Houston-based blues-rock trio played just about every juke-joint in the Lone Star State, leading no less an authority than Jimi Hendrix to declare guitarist Billy Gibbons to be his favorite six-stringer. The power trio finally broke through to mainstream commercial success in 1983 with their album Eliminator, the album that contained the Top 40 hits “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Legs,” and “Sharp Dressed Man.” The music videos made in support of those singles made the long-bearded, hot rod-loving rockers unlikely stars of MTV. That two-fronted (more)

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Dredge fans such as Ryan Susa (shown here at left) have begun taking to the streets in an effort to get signatures on a petition calling for a study of dredging the Rivanna Reservoir.

“We want to make sure that government keeps its word and does a study that’s unbiased,” said Susa Friday night as he chatted up the cause, in this case with Fridays After Five-goer Veronica Price-Thomas.

Already, charges of bias have been roiling a community that finds itself seemingly committed to a $143 million consultant-driven water plan that’s supposed to supply 50 years of water while budgeting nothing for maintenance dredging any of the existing reservoirs. The situation boiled over earlier this month when first the Charlottesville City Council and then the Albemarle Supervisors passed resolutions demanding (more)

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The Charlottesville construction company that built the Charlottesville Pavilion and rebuilt Scott Stadium has been recognized for its success by Virginia Business magazine. The publication named Martin Horn a 2007 Construction Leader based on its volume of business.

“We’re really lucky to be here with the university and everything else that’s going on,” company president Jack Horn, Jr. said, noting that repeat business and established relationships have contributed to Martin Horn’s expansion.

The family-owned company has grown from doing $700,000 of business in 1979 to grossing over $50 million in 2007. All of the company’s projects were in Charlottesville and Albemarle County last year, and Horn says that isn’t likely to change. “We like being local and working in this area,” Horn said.

Martin Horn is currently building a new Rosewood Village assisted living facility and the Claude Moore nurse’s education building for the University.

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Jeanette Lancaster, beloved retiring UVA nursing dean, gets a rare commemoration: her name’s getting affixed to a street. A little stretch of 15th Street will soon be Jeanette Lancaster Way. And lest we conclude that this furthers Charlottesville’s bizarre practice of letting one continuous street hold multiple names (think: Park/Rio or Ivy/University/Main), this one actually undoes some confusion. That’s because this bit of 15th is flanked not by 14th and 16th (as one might expect) but by Monroe Lane and Park Place. The street runs between McLeod Hall, the nursing school’s current home, and the Claude Moore Nursing Education Building, new space for the highly-ranked program that will be dedicated September 5. This is in the UVA medical district, formerly known as western Fifeville, before nearly all the houses fell to the wrecking ball during the 1980s and 1990s. The renaming was quietly approved by the City in April and announced today by the University’s Board of Visitors. President Casteen, faculty, and staff gave Lancaster a party at Carr’s Hill on May 30.

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