Blankenship conviction stands

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand the conviction of Don Blankenship -- paid $17.8 million in 2009, the highest in the coal industry, and another $27.2 million at his 2009 retirement -- for orchestrating safety violations that led to the 2010 deaths of 29 miners at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Whitesville, Raleigh County, West Virginia.

Don Blankenship

Blankenship, who influenced state politics by donating millions of dollars to the Republican Party and State Supreme Court candidates, spent a year in Federal Correctional Institution Taft just north of Los Angeles.

He wanted his conviction vacated.

After 2008 photos of Blankenship vacationing on the French Riviera with West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Spike Maynard while Massey Energy had a case pending before that court appeared in the New York Times, Justice Maynard lost his bid for re-election in the next primary.

When groundwater pollution from coal slurry injection by Massey Energy contaminated wells around Blankenship's home, Massey Energy paid to build a water line to his home from a neighboring town and Blankenship didn’t tell his neighbors the source of their homes’ contamination.

A Blankenship employee, Deborah May, was awarded unemployment by the West Virginia Supreme Court after testifying that Blankenship grabbed her, threw food at her over a wrong fast-food order and tore a tie rack and coat hanger out of the closet when she forgot to leave a hangar out for his coat. The court ruled her leaving was justified.

The Matewan High and Marshall University graduate was born in Stopover, Kentucky and raised in Delorme, West Virginia.

Fairmont 10^th, Huntington #1 in major crimes

Fairmont, with 82 major crimes in a year, ranked 10^th among West Virginia cities.

Huntington is #1, with 394.

In order are Charleston, Wheeling, Beckley, Parkersburg, Clarksburg, Morgantown, Martinsburg and South Charleston.
West Virginia cities are pikers when it comes to violent crimes. Cleveland and Baltimore each has more than 1,300 murders a year.

April trial in 2014 frat hazing death

Jordan Hankins, after entering a not guilty plea in Monongalia County Court Tuesday in the 2014 fraternity hazing death of WVU student Nolan Burch, will begin his criminal trial in Aprill.

Burch was among 20 fraternity pledges of Kappa Sigma participating in an initiation. Burch's blood alcohol level was 0.493, more than six times the legal limit. He was 18.

Another slap on the wrist?

Gary Southern, who had direct oversight of a West Virginia chemical tank farm that leaked and fouled the drinking water supply for 300,000 people in 2014, will appear in federal court in Charleston for sentencing.

Based on what happened to the five other ex-Freedom Industries officials sentenced, don’t expect jail time.

Four other former officials were sentenced to probation; a fifth received a one-month prison term, proving again that it's worst to rob a 7-Eleven than endanger one-third a million folks.

The company filed for bankruptcy eight days after the spill, so nobody can collect anything for the mess they created.

Sex rivalry led to 5 deaths

Jody Hunt, 39, of Westover, killed his ex-girlfriend, two men he believed she was having sex with and the owner of a rival tow truck company and himself, police say.

A 12-hour manhunt came to an end Monday night when Hunt was found with a self-inflicted 9 mm gunshot wound to his head in Everettville, near the border of Monongalia County and Marion County, off US Route 19.

While the bodies of Sharon Kay Berkshire, 39, of Westover and Michael David Frum, 28, of Maidsville, were first found by a nearby landlord in Cheat Lake, law enforcement was dispatched to a reported shooting at 7:42 a.m. at Doug's Towing in Westover, where owner Doug Brady was gunned down by Hunt.  

After traveling to Cheat Lake and killing Berkshire and Frum, Hunt shot and killed his cousin and business partner,  Jody Taylor, 43, at his home on Sweet Pea Lane.

"Once the officers responded to the shooting in Westover and were able to view some surveillance video that's what gave us the description of the vehicle that our suspect was driving," said Sheriff Al Kisner.

Authorities looked for Hunt and his vehicle for most of the day Monday.

Berkshire filed a domestic protection order against Hunt, a convicted felon, in 2013 and again in early 2014, said Monongalia County Sheriff Al Kisner.  Berkshire later dismissed the protective orders and continued her relationship with Hunt, said Kisner.  

Berkshire and Frum were in a relatively new romantic relationship, said Kisner.  Criminal records indicate that Hunt was convicted in January 1999 in Virginia on kidnapping and abduction charges.  Hunt also faced firearm and wanton endangerment charges in West Virginia and spent five years in Huttonsville Correctional Facility.  It's likely that Hunt obtained a firearm by falsifying documents or purchasing it from a person who did not require documents, said Kisner.

Hunt was expected to meet with Monongalia County Commissioner Eldon Callen to discuss towing issues Tuesday.  Hunt told commissioners he was mad about a particular towing company that recently picked up an overturned truck after hearing about it on the scanner, although Hunt claimed it was J&J Towing's turn as part of the county towing rotation.

"Jody Hunt called Eldon and felt that there was a problem that happened where another tow truck driver took his call," said Commissioner Tom Bloom. "He was very angry and wanted to meet with Eldon again this week, to discuss the concerns and add more teeth to it."

Suspect In Monongalia Quadruple Murder Dead

Monongalia Sheriff's Department and State Police have confirmed that shooting suspect Jody Hunt, 39, of Westover was found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head off of U.S. Route 19 near the Monongalia and Marion County border.

West Virginia State Police said that Hunt killed four people, including the woman who filed a domestic violence case against Hunt last month.

Dead are Hunt; 39-year-old Sharon Kay Berkshire, of Westover, blamed by Hunt for his actions; 28-year-old Michael David Frum, of Maidsville; Doug Brady, of Westover, who owned a local towing company; and Jody Taylor, shot on Sweet Pea Lane and taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital where he died.

 Two of the shootings happened in the Westover area and the other was in the Cheat Lake area in Monongalia County, authorities said.

WAJR.com reported that Hunt made a Facebook post that indicated he was having relationship problems with a woman.

“I poured out my heart to her only to be maniupulated as to what I could give her," the post said, according to WAJR.com. “Life is short. It’s not all games. Don’t play a game with one’s heart.”

He continued: “My actions were not right nor were the actions of those who tried to tear me down and take from me. This was not the plan but a struggle to see that those who strives to hurt me received their fair pay of hurt like I received.”

As a precaution, all schools in Monongalia County were placed on lockdown, Westover police Sgt. M. Starsick said. West Virginia University in Morgantown said there was no immediate threat to the campus and classes resumed Monday following the Thanksgiving break.

State documents indicate Hunt owned J&J Towing and Repair LLC of Westover. Frank Brown lives in a house behind the towing company's lot. He said normally the lot is busy in the early morning but there was no such activity Monday.