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Courts and Crime

  • Music teacher sentenced

        A music teacher will serve additional time behind bars for a sexual relationship he had with a minor.

        Luís Roberto Méndez, 43, of Lynchburg, pleaded guilty in February in Bedford Circuit Court to a pair of charges of taking indecent liberties with a child by a person in a custodial or supervisory relationship. The victim was a 17-year-old girl.

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  • Montvale man faces malicious wounding charge

        Bedford County Sheriff’s deputies responded to an Adventure Mountain Road address in Montvale on Saturday Aug. 29 at 8:30 p.m.  A person at that residence had called 911 dispatchers and said that Alvie Ferris was there and had  allegedly assaulted several people. On arrival deputies discovered Ferris was no longer there. Phillip Warfe, 61, was transported to Centra Bedford Memorial Hospital. He was later transferred to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital with internal injuries.   

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  • Man accused of assaulting woman

        Bedford County 911 dispatchers received a call, on Saturday, Aug 29 at 1: 30 p.m.,  to a residence in the 1200 block of Breezy Hill Road, Vinton.
        The caller, who was calling from Botetourt County, said that her 28-year-old daughter, Ashley Brogan, was at this residence and was possibly being assaulted by Willard Hale, according to a report from the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office.

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  • Shooting shocks area, nation

    By John Barnhart and Tom Wilmoth
    news@bedfordbulletin.com

        This isn’t supposed to happen here. Not in Moneta – not to someone we know.

        In fact it isn’t supposed to happen at all.
        But last Wednesday morning changed everything. The Smith Mountain Lake Community—and the media family at WDBJ7—will never be the same.    
        A simple live report from Bridgewater Plaza turned deadly—and shocked the world.

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  • Community comes together

    They came together to pray; they came together to remember; they came together to mourn.
        In the days following the shooting at Bridgewater Plaza in Moneta, coming together was important for the community, in whatever ways possible.

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  • Bond set in solicitation of minor case

        A Lynchburg man, working at Bedford Middle School as a day treatment counselor, was granted bond last week on a charge related to sexual exploitation of a child, whom he first approached at the school.
        On Friday July 31, Cleveland Leroy Coaxum Jr., of Lynchburg, was arrested on warrants related to the sexual exploitation of a minor. Coaxum, 26, was charged with three felonies involving the use of communications systems to facilitate certain offenses involving children.

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  • Shana Witt enters no contest plea to 1st degree murder charge

        When Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Krantz initially described the details of the death of Jordan Smith—the child smothered by his own mother in February 2014—he said such a crime, “rips your heart out.”

        For Jordan Smith’s paternal grandmother that was apparent Friday, as she clutched a picture of her grandson as she left court.
        Now, that the woman who committed the crime has been found guilty, Krantz hopes maybe some healing might begin.

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  • WDBJ releases statement on employment history of shooter; Reporter and photographer killed during live interview; gunmen dies after shooting himself

     

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    Statement of Jeffrey Marks, president and general manager, WDBY Television Inc. on employment of Vester Flanagan at the station

     

     

    Vester Flanagan was employed by WDBJ7 as a reporter between March 2012 and February 2013. Flanagan applied for the position using the air name of Bryce Williams. As part of WDBJ's standard protocol his background check resulted in positive references.

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  • Police investigate shooting into car

        Bedford Police are investigating a shooting incident that occurred July 25 in the 600 block of North Street.
        According to Chief Todd Foreman a gun was fired at the back of a vehicle in that area. Police responded to reports of two or three gunshots being fired.
        One person was injured in the vehicle, apparently from a small laceration caused by glass. The bullet was lodged in the seat.

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  • Caregiver faces charges

        A 37-year-old Lynchburg woman, working as a caregiver at Carriage Hill, has been charged with malicious wounding and felony abuse of an incapacitated adult causing injury.
        Andrea Nicole Richmond-Smith was arrested Aug. 11, following an investigation of a July 3 incident that occurred with an 82-year-old female patient at Carriage Hill, according to Bedford Police Chief Todd Foreman.

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