Courts and Crime

    Major Ricky Gardner isn’t changing his views on the guilt of convicted double-murderer Jens Soering, no matter what Soering’s lawyer may argue.
    “Mr. (Steven) Rosenfield’s announcement this week does not change the status of Jens Soering’s conviction. In fact, these results have been publicly known for several years,” Gardner said of disputed blood evidence in the case.

    Last Tuesday August 16, investigators from the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office Vice Unit, assisted by the Bedford Police Department, executed a search warrant for 912 Grand Arbre Dr. in the town of Bedford. The search warrant was in reference to the alleged distribution and sale of cocaine from the residence.

    Brian McAlexander completed his fall from police lieutenant to convicted felon Tuesday morning in Bedford County Circuit Court.

    According to a plea agreement between McAlexander and Virginia Assistant Attorney General Samuel Gene Fishel, McAlexander pleaded guilty to one charge of distributing child pornography.
    Four other child porn charges were not prosecuted as part of the agreement. Though the charges weren’t prosecuted, the defendant could later be re-indicted on the same charge.

    Patricia Jean Welch, 66, entered an Alford plea Tuesday to a charge of lying to a multi-jurisdictional grand jury investigating the case of two sisters who went missing in 1975 in Maryland.

    Welch was found guilty of the charge, but won’t spend any time in jail, receiving a two-year suspended sentence. She will have to pay a $1,000 fine and be on good behavior for five years.
    “We’re satisfied with the Alford plea,” stated Patricia Ann Welch, the daughter of Patricia Jean Welch.