WINFIELD, W.Va. -- A preliminary hearing for Putnam County resident Philip Casto, who allegedly killed a Hurricane woman on Sept. 10, was postponed Monday in Putnam Circuit Court.

Casto, 33, of Scott Depot, faces a first-degree murder charge for the shooting death of Jennifer Evans, 27.

Massachusetts police captured Casto the day after the shooting at a shopping mall in Braintree, a suburb of Boston. He was brought back to Putnam County and arraigned.

Monday’s hearing, in front of Putnam Magistrate Linda J. Hunt, was delayed because Casto does not yet have an attorney, according to Hunt’s assistant, who said the hearing has not yet been rescheduled.

The assistant also said that Casto plans to hire David Moye, of Hurricane, to represent him.

Casto has not waived his right to a preliminary hearing, during which a magistrate decides whether there is probable cause to believe an offense has been committed and the defendant committed it.

CLARKSBURG - While same-sex marriage is now legal throughout the United States and the federal government can prosecute crimes committed because of a person's sexual orientation or gender identity as hate crimes, the battle for true equality for the LGBT community is far from over, the parents of Matthew Shepard said on Monday.

Judy and Dennis Shepard were at the FBI's offices in Clarksburg for a media event Monday. Their son Matthew was a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming in 1998 when he was abducted, robbed, beaten and left to die by two men in a remote area east of Laramie, Wyoming. His family fought for stronger protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender victims, and in 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, expanding federal hate crimes to include those based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

At the FBI, the Shepards said that full equality also will require adding protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals into state law.

"The federal law doesn't cover everything so yeah, absolutely," Judy Shepard said.

"That states have to buy in," her husband added. "It needs to be done, that way, they own the law and they own the importance of enforcing it."

West Virginia's hate crimes law includes no protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Dennis Shepard also advocated for the passage of legislation that would make it illegal to fire someone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

"You can still discriminate on the job against the gay community," Dennis Shepard said. "So you can be married on Sunday, go to work on Monday and go to the human resources department and say I'd like to put my husband or wife on my insurance and be fired because you're gay. So where's the equal protections?"

Workplace protections legislation for the LGBT community has not succeeded on the federal level or in the state.

Dennis Shepard's voice shook with frustration as he talked about the opposition they faced getting the hate crimes prevention act passed.

"These are not gay rights," he said. "There is no such thing as gay rights. They're not special rights. They're equal rights for all citizens of this country and people use the word gay rights just as a buzz word to inflame the population ... There is nothing special about what they want. They just want equality."

Judy Shepard said her son would be thrilled at how far the movement for equal rights has come in this country.

"If we weren't doing it, he would definitely be doing it if he were still here," she said. "That was his life ... trying to make life better and easier for people he loved and cared about."

Another argument against hate crimes legislation based on sexual orientation has been that motivation is difficult to prove. David O'Malley, sheriff of Albany County, Wyoming, was in charge of the investigation into the Shepard case and was also at the media event on Monday.

He said the motive was clear to him in Shepard's case. He said Shepard's attackers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, used a gay slur to refer to Shepard, and kept going with the assault after the robbery was over.

O'Malley said it was McKinney's own statement that he only had to hit Shepard one time to get his wallet.

"So the robbery motivation stops there," O'Malley said. "What went wrong for them to drive another two or three miles down a dark country two-track road, tie him to a fence and hit him 19-21 times in the face with the butt end of a huge gun?"

That and the gay slur "really led me and at least several of the investigators to think that the motivation went way past robbery," O'Malley said.

Fairness West Virginia sent a statement on behalf of Andrew Schneider, executive director of the statewide LGBT rights organization.

"While the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act protects LGBT people from hate-based crimes at the federal level, it is important for West Virginia to implement state laws against hate crimes so that local law enforcement may prosecute more quickly and effectively," the statement said.

The Shepards are also co-founders of a foundation that works on equal rights issues. More information is available at matthewshepard.org. They were at the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services offices in Clarksburg Monday on the same day as the release of the FBI's Crime in the United States report, FBI officials noted. FBI officials urged law enforcement to participate in the voluntary data gathering and said reporting of hate crimes will have to increase for more people to get behind hate crimes legislation.

Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazette.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) - An Ohio man has pleaded guilty in West Virginia to health care fraud.

Thirty-six-year-old Joshua Petrie of Proctorville, Ohio, entered the plea Monday in federal court in Huntington.

Petrie worked as a sales representative for several out-of-state companies that sold and distributed knee and back braces from a medical practice in West Virginia. U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said Petrie admitted using copies of a physician's pre-signed order to created false documents showing he provided braces to Medicare patients.

Petrie forged patients' signatures to make it appear they had received the braces. The paperwork was used by others to bill Medicare for about $38,000.

Petrie faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is set for Jan. 11.

A man was arrested Monday night and charged with murder in connection to a January shooting in Rand.

Gerard Maxwell, 29, of Rand, is charged with murder in the shooting death of Christopher "Snacks" Carey, 27, Kanawha Sheriff's Cpl. Brian Humphreys said Tuesday. Maxwell is also charged with the attempted murder of Latisha Crawford, 28.

An indictment against Maxwell and two other men was unsealed Tuesday morning, according to filings in the Kanawha Circuit Clerk's office. William E. Lyttle, 23, of Costa, and Todd Hodge, 32, of Rand, who were arrested in March, were also indicted in connection to the January shootings.

Lyttle is charged with malicious wounding, wanton endangerment and attempted murder. Hodge is charged with accessory after the fact to murder.

Maxwell is also charged with wanton endangerment and malicious wounding.

Police rushed to Starling Drive in Rand about 5 a.m. on Jan. 23 after receiving multiple reports of gunshots.

Carey was found lying dead in the middle of the street and Crawford was found wounded in a car that crashed nearby. Crawford was shot three times - in her leg, arm and upper torso - and is lucky to be alive, Capt. Greg Young with the Kanawha Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.

Police recovered between 60 and 80 spent shell casings at the scene.

Maxwell was a suspect very early on in the investigation, said Young, but police believe he fled out of state after the incident. On Monday night, police arrested him leaving a residence in the 4800 block of Raven Drive in Rand. Police had received a tip that he would be there, according to Humphreys.

Police wouldn't release a possible motive for the shooting and said the investigation is still ongoing.

Young confirmed that the shooting is not related to the death of Maxwell's twin brother, Gerald Martin Maxwell. He died after being shot in the 5300 block of Starling Drive in Rand in December.

Leonard Dewayne Thomas, 44, of Detroit, is awaiting trial on a second-degree murder charge.

During a hearing last month, Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom wouldn't accept Lyttle's guilty plea to wanton endangerment by way of information - meaning a grand jury wouldn't have first determined whether there was probable cause for an indictment.

If Bloom would have accepted that deal, prosecutors would have dropped the other charges against Lyttle.

The judge said, however, he needed more time before accepting a plea to wanton endangerment that involved a death.

During the August hearing, assistant Kanawha prosecutor Maryclaire Akers said there were about six people outside a house at 5324 Starling Drive on the day of the shootings.

Lyttle was inside the residence while someone he knew was outside "having beef," Akers said.

"I got him, I dropped him, I shot him, or words to that effect," Akers told the judge the shooter yelled out after the incident, according to information prosecutors and police obtained from Lyttle.

Lyttle then went outside and began to fire down the road toward the vehicle, Akers said, adding Lyttle did so because he was afraid to look as if he wasn't participating. His shots didn't hit Carey or Crawford, Akers said last month.

After the January shootings, Kanawha deputies began a large-scale investigation in Rand, which led to multiple other arrests over separate allegations, Sheriff John Rutherford said. The sheriff, Chief Deputy Mike Rutherford, Young, Humphreys and Sgt. Tom Carper talked with the Gazette-Mail on Tuesday about the months-long investigation. A number of additional officers were assigned to the area, as well as members of the sheriff's STOP team, which stands for Sheriff's Tactical Operations Patrol. Officers in that unit have extensive knowledge of the drug trade.

Between March and July in Rand, four men were arrested on felony drug charges and numerous search warrants were executed by police, according to information provided by deputies. During that time, 91.1 grams of heroin, three grams of crack, 8.8 grams of crystal meth, along with pills and marijuana were confiscated by police in Rand. Also, nearly $12,000 was seized.

After it became clear an arrest wouldn't be made as quickly as deputies would like in the January shootings, Mike Rutherford said it was important for the people of Rand to feel safe in their community.

"We worked hard up there because the vast majority are very, very good people and then you have that handful of people. Unfortunately, a quantity of them are people coming in from out of state," said the chief deputy. "We want to do our best to help the good people and make them as safe as they can be in their own homes."

Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - The Berkeley County Sheriff's Office is investigating a dog attack that left a 2-year-old boy dead.

The Journal of Martinsburg says a preliminary investigation indicates the child wandered from his property when he was attacked by the dog Monday night.

The boy was found by the dog's owner lying near the animal.

An investigator with the sheriff's office was not immediately available Tuesday to provide additional information.

West Virginia State Police fatally shot a murder suspect out of Georgia after troopers say he exited his vehicle with a firearm Tuesday afternoon on Interstate 77 in Raleigh County.

The shooting followed a pursuit by police, said Lt. Michael Baylous, State Police spokesman.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the man, 28-year-old Brandon Lamar Johnson, of DeKalb County, Georgia, allegedly shot his former co-worker Tuesday outside a Goodwill store in Rockdale County, Georgia, then drove 500 miles before he was shot by police in West Virginia.

Police shot Johnson near the 49 mile marker of the Turnpike, not far from the North Beckley exit, Baylous said. The northbound lanes in the area were closed following the incident but were re-opened by about 5:30 p.m.

No officers were injured.

Baylous said he would not give any more information until Wednesday morning.

A Turnpike employee confirmed that a shot was fired and police were involved in Raleigh County, but did not have any other information available.

Driving rain led to an abnormal amount of wrecks and other traffic hang-ups in Kanawha County on Tuesday afternoon.

A Metro 911 dispatcher said the bulk of crashes occurred from about 1 to 3 p.m., especially around the 95-97 mile markers of the West Virginia Turnpike.

Eight wrecks were reported in about two and a half hours Tuesday afternoon. High water also was causing problems for motorists. A portion of New Goff Mountain Road near Cracker Barrel in Cross Lanes was covered with water in the afternoon.

Kanawha County Metro 911 received a report of two tractor-trailers over the hillside near the 50 mile marker of eastbound Interstate 64, the dispatcher said. While noting the information was not confirmed, he said they received reports of a UPS truck possibly over a bridge and a FedEx truck off the side of the road.

He said 150 yards of guardrail was reported damaged.

The dispatcher said the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office was investigating, but Sgt. Brian Humphreys, the department's spokesman, said he did not have information.

The dispatcher wasn't aware of any serious injuries.

Charleston police are investigating after a man was shot in the neck at a Kanawha City motel.

It happened just before 10:24 p.m. Tuesday at Knights Inn at 6401 MacCorkle Avenue SE, Kanawha Metro 911 dispatchers said.

Information on the victim's condition wasn't immediately available late Tuesday.

Metro dispatchers deferred questions to Charleston police, who were unavailable for comment as of press time.

This is a developing story. Check in with www.wvgazettemail.com Wednesday morning for more information.

PROCTOR, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia State Police are investigating the discovery of a body on fire in the Northern Panhandle.

Media outlets report the badly burned body of a male was found Tuesday in Wetzel County near the Marshall County line.

Marshall County Sheriff Kevin Cecil says a coal miner saw that the victim was on fire, then went to a nearby volunteer fire department for help.

The man's identity wasn't immediately determined.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) - A man and woman have been arrested and charged with neglect and drug charges after police say they overdosed on heroin in the presence of their three children.

West Virginia State Trooper W.G. Hash tells local media that 37-year-old Stephen E. Woodard was hospitalized and 32-year-old Misty Lee McGlothlin refused treatment Monday for drug overdoses. Hash says Woodard's 2-year-old daughter found Woodard and McGlothlin shortly after they had overdosed. Her crying alerted McGlothlin's 8-year-old and 10-year-old children, who got the attention of neighbors.

Woodard and McGlothlin were each charged with three counts of felony child neglect and misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance. Police took Woodard into custody Tuesday after he was released from a local hospital.

All of the children were taken into custody by Child Protective Services.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) - A former Marshall University running back will face trial on Jan. 26 on charges of hitting a gay couple.

The Herald-Dispatch reports a Cabell County circuit judge set the tentative trial date during a status conference Tuesday for 24-year-old Steward Butler of Lakeland, Florida.

Indictments unsealed in late May charge Butler with two felony civil rights violations and two misdemeanor battery counts.

Butler is accused of striking two men who were kissing on a Huntington street on April 5. He was dismissed from the team and no longer attends Marshall.

The civil rights violation relates to the men's gender. Butler attorney Raymond Nolan and Cabell County assistant prosecutor Lauren Plymale agreed to submit questions to the state Supreme Court concerning whether hate crime statutes include protection for sexual orientation.

A short chase preceded the fatal shooting of a Georgia murder suspect by West Virginia State Police.

Brandon L. Johnson, 28, of Snellville, Georgia, died Tuesday at Raleigh General Hospital as a result of wounds sustained in the altercation. Lt. Michael Baylous on Wednesday morning provided additional details of the incident that took place on the West Virginia Turnpike.

According to the release, at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, a trooper assigned to the Parkways Authority noticed a blue Dodge Intrepid speeding north on Interstate 77 in Raleigh County. Baylous said the trooper noticed that the vehicle fit the description of one possibly driven by Johnson and related to a murder investigation out of Rockdale County, Georgia.

The trooper was unable to catch up to the suspect and believed the driver may have exited the Interstate at Harper Road in Beckley, so he parked his cruiser north of the exit to continue watching for the vehicle.

A short time later, Baylous said a road maintenance crew member who was monitoring radio traffic spotted the vehicle on the Interstate 77 north entrance ramp at Harper Road.

According to the State Police news release, troopers attempted to stop the vehicle, but Johnson took off. The officer who had parked in the median, north of the initial traffic stop, set up spike strips that were successful in stopping the Johnson's car near the 47 mile marker.

When Johnson exited his vehicle, Baylous said he immediately pointed a handgun at the State Police officers, who responded by firing at the man.

In Georgia, Rockdale County Sheriff Eric Levett confirmed Johnson was wanted in Tuesday's killing of 57-year-old co-worker Pamela Harmon, of Covington, Georgia. Her body was found in the parking lot of a Goodwill donation center in Conyers, Georgia.

In a statement, Goodwill of North Georgia asked that people keep Harmon's family and Goodwill workers in their thoughts and prayers.

Johnson's body has been sent to the West Virginia State Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy.

BECKLEY, W.Va. - A Beckley man was arrested Wednesday and charged with the armed robbery of two Shell gas stations.

Joshua McKinney, 26, allegedly robbed a station on Airport Road in Beaver and in Grandview, according to a news release from the Raleigh County Sheriff's Office.

The Beaver station was robbed around 3 a.m. Sunday, and the Grandview station was robbed early on Sept. 22, according to media reports.

McKinney was arrested after a joint investigation between the sheriff's office and the Beckley Police Department, according to the release. He was in the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver on Wednesday.

CROSS LANES, W.Va. (AP) - A lawsuit alleging female tenants at an apartment complex were sexually harassed has been settled.

The complex's owner, Perkins Parke LP, and the former property manager, Encore Management Company Inc., agreed to pay a total of $120,000 in civil penalties and damages to settle the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department.

The Justice Department announced the settlement on Wednesday in a news release.

The lawsuit alleged that a Perkins Parke district manager and a maintenance worker coerced female tenants to engage in unwelcome sexual acts and made unwelcome sexual comments and advances to female tenants. The lawsuit said the men also took adverse actions against female tenants when they reported unwelcome conduct or refused sexual advances.

After nearly 20 years, professional bail bondsmen will be allowed back in Kanawha County.

Chief Kanawha Circuit Judge James Stucky said Wednesday he is preparing an order that will allow bail bondsmen to get people out of jail. The order should be filed by the end of the week, he said.

Judges will allow the bondsmen to work in Kanawha for a year, before reevaluating the issue, Stucky said.

Kanawha circuit judges barred the practice in 1998, after questions were raised about some of the bondsmen's lack of property value to secure some bonds. Stucky said, with that concern in mind, judges plan to have more oversight of the bondsmen.

The majority of Kanawha's seven circuit judges voted to allow the return of bondsmen, according to Stucky, but Judge Duke Bloom opposes the idea.

"There's still not going to be enough oversight," Bloom said Wednesday, urging his fellow judges to hold a public hearing before giving final approval.

The system creates a large potential for abuse, according to Bloom.

"I don't know what good can come of it," he said.

He added that it probably won't make it any easier for defendants charged with serious crimes to get out of jail.

"It's very expensive for people who are least able to afford it," he said. "It gives people the opportunity to do things to make people come to court that they probably shouldn't do."

Using property for bonds requires a justification of surety, which shows property ownership and its assessed value, from the County Clerk's Office. Those using cash have the option of either having the money returned when their case is completed or applying it toward a fine and costs.

People who are arrested may be given the option of posting 10 percent of their bail in cash or putting up their own property or another person's property to cover the bail.

Bail works in two ways: The full amount of the bail is posted by the defendant or on behalf of the defendant in what is called a cash bond. If the defendant attends all court dates, the cash bond amount is returned to the depositor, less any court costs, court fees, fines and other criminal penalties.

Stucky said anyone interested in serving as a professional bail bondsman would have to apply and get prior approval with judges. They would undergo a criminal background check, he said.

"We hope it's going to give defendants a third option to get out of jail," Stucky said.

Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.

An inmate at South Central Regional Jail died by suicide on Monday night, according to a regional jails spokesman.

Jail staff and emergency medical technicians responded and provided first aid but were unable to save Richard Riffe, according to Lawrence Messina, spokesman for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety.

Riffe, an attorney and former Boone County assistant prosecutor, was pronounced dead at the hospital at about 10 p.m.

He was in jail on charges of daytime burglary, battery on an officer and obstructing.

Evidence suggests he hung himself, Messina said.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - Three Martinsburg residents have admitted their roles in a heroin trafficking operation.

Entering guilty pleas this week in federal court in Martinsburg were 32-year-old Veronica Gladden, 33-year-old Scott Andrew Ours and 37-year-old James Miner Jenkins.

Gladden faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Ours and Jenkins each face up to 20 years and fines of $1 million.

U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld says the operation that transported heroin from Baltimore into West Virginia was disrupted in June by a 163-count federal indictment encompassing 41 defendants.

What if a woman decides she doesn't want to press charges against her attacker, a magistrate asked Kanawha officials in charge of the county's domestic violence pilot program.

"Do you all still prosecute?" he asked.

The answer was a resounding, "Yes."

Kanawha Magistrate Julie Yeager on Thursday answered that question, among others, and told a room full of about 100 magistrates from across the state about the success Kanawha's domestic violence program has had over the past three years.

The Kanawha program, which began in 2012, is the first and only of its kind in the state. The program streamlines cases of domestic violence to protect victims and prevent future offenses. It was recently given the green light by state Supreme Court justices to run for another year, Yeager said.

Kanawha County, the state's most populous county, sees about 700 more domestic violence cases per year than any other county, according to the state's Family Court Service Division.

Before the program, 10 magistrates and five family court judges handled domestic violence cases. The family court judges addressed the civil aspects of the cases while magistrates dealt with criminal charges.

Until last year, when Kanawha Family Judge Mike Kelly retired, he helped Yeager with the program. But Judge Joe Zak, who replaced Kelly, didn't want to participate, so Yeager has taken on all of the domestic violence cases in magistrate court.

And while that may sound overwhelming, Yeager said Thursday she's managing fine - and actually likes it better this way.

"Now I really know everything that's going on," she said, adding that provides even more safety for victims.

Yeager spoke to her colleagues during their training conference at the Marriott hotel and explained that they have the chance to make a difference in cases of domestic violence.

"We're on the front lines, we see these women or these men who come before us," she said, noting an important goal of the program is to inform the public about the changes the program provides.

"In my county there's still a philosophy of, 'Oh, she won't show up (so the charges will be dropped).' That's not how it is anymore," Yeager said, before adding with a laugh, "I heard recently that the word on the street is, 'Yeager don't play.'"

But it's true, she added, with a serious tone in her voice.

Her hope is that other magistrates will be encouraged to start their own version of the program.

Reach Kate White at

kate.white@wvgazette.com,

304-348-1723 or

@KateLWhite on Twitter.

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - Two West Virginia men have been convicted on federal heroin trafficking charges.

Jeremiah Robert Dodrill of Spelter sold heroin one year ago near a playground in Harrison County. The 34-year-old defendant could be fined up to $2 million and sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.

Adam Thomas Mitchell of Clarksburg also sold heroin in Harrison County. The offense occurred in April. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $1 million.

The U.S. attorney's office says each was convicted Thursday in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg.

The West Virginia Natural Resources Police are crediting Facebook users for helping solve an albino deer killing case in Boone County.

On Sept. 27, Natural Resources Police Officer Dakoda Chattin got a call from Boone County 911 advising that an albino deer had been shot and killed in someone's yard along Route 17. After interviewing witnesses, the only evidence available was that there were multiple suspects involved and they drove a smaller-model gray truck.

The incident was posted on the Natural Resources Police Facebook page at www.facebook.com/DNRpolice with a request for help from the public.

DNR officials said the post was seen by nearly half a million people and was shared by more than 7,000. Information officers received after the incident spread helped them learn of suspects who may have committed the crime.

After investigating and researching possible suspects identified by the public, Chattin made contact with three people who admitted that they had killed the deer.

Their charges include hunting without a license, hunting during closed season, carrying a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle, shooting from a motor vehicle, shooting from a public road, and illegal firearm for deer hunting.

"We continue to be impressed with how we've been able to solve crimes with the public's help," Natural Resources Police Col. Jerry Jenkins said. "The response has been beyond what we anticipated when we began using Facebook earlier this year. It's become a valuable tool for us to gather information about crimes and suspects."