Courts and Crime

onvicted of rape in connection with charges that date back to 2005. He will have to serve more than 17 years of a 57 year, seven month sentence.

    Michael Wayne Porterfield, 38, pleaded no contest May 3 to the rape charge, which stems from him having sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old girl in the Goodview area in 2005. He was arrested on the charges last July after the girl, now a teenager, shared what had happened with a friend.

    While there are conflicting stories about who might have helped dump the body of Sean Peter Placko in the James River last year, at least one man has now been convicted for that murder.

     Christopher Michael Dudley, 29, of Waynesboro will have to spend 37 years in prison after pleading no contest Tuesday  to   charges   of  first degree murder and the unlawful disposal of a dead body. His total sentence was 65 years, 28 which were suspended as part of the plea agreement.

    The reward amount for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved with damaging more than 40 headstones at a Bedford cemetery has increased to $1,900.

    This week four additional donations were made to the original $500 reward that had been offered.
    Those who caused the damage will likely face Class 6 felony property damage charges.

Landmark News Service

Former Staunton River High School football coach Rick Witt accepted a plea bargain Tuesday in Roanoke Co0unty Circuit Court reducing charges that he had sex with an underage female William Byrd High School student in 2008.

Witt, already serving four years after being convicted of having sex with that student and another girl in Bedford County, had faced eight felony charges of carnal knowledge and taking indecent liberties with a minor.