Courts and Crime

    A 22-year-old Goodview man will spend 12 months in jail for an involuntary manslaughter conviction involving a single-vehicle accident that killed a Bedford man.

    Durham Westley Falabella received a 10-year-sentence with all but 12 months of that sentence suspended, on the involuntary manslaughter conviction. He also received a 12 month sentence on a misdemeanor driving under the influence conviction, which runs concurrently with the other sentence.

    Armed, dangerous and desperate.
    That is how Bedford County Deputy Juette Renalds described 32-year-old David Mendoza, the man he shot and killed July 30, following a chase that began earlier that evening after a home invasion in which Mendoza had attacked a county woman.
    Following a four month investigation by special prosecutor Montgomery County Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Pettitt, Renalds has been cleared in the shooting.

The special grand jury investigating the 1975 disappearance of sisters Sheila and Katherine Lyon met last week and at least one woman has been indicted, according to a story in The Washington Post.
    According to the Post article, 65-year-old Patricia Jean Welch, a Maryland resident, has been indicted for perjury. Patricia Welch is the wife of Richard Allen Welch who authorities named in October as a “person of interest” in the investigation of the abduction of the two girls who were last seen at a Wheaton, Maryland, shopping mall.

    The officer-related shooting death of Richard Thomas Bergeron on Oct. 28 has been ruled as a justified shooting by Michael R. Doucette, the commonwealth’s attorney in Lynchburg, who was serving as special prosecutor in the investigation.