CLARKSBURG — A 19-year-old Lost Creek man on leave from the Navy has been charged with murder in the alleged stabbing death of his brother at their residence.
Jonas Hays Copass is accused of stabbing to death Theodore “Teddy” Lee Harper, also 19 and of Lost Creek, on Sunday, according to Harrison County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Jeff McAtee and the investigating officer, Deputy Zach Mealey.
The defendant allegedly told law enforcement that he and his brother “had gotten into a fight and during the fight (Copass) did unsheathe a sword, reached back and stabbed him, and Teddy did release his grip on him,” Mealey has alleged.
The victim was declared dead 12:17 p.m. Sunday at United Hospital Center, according to Mealey. Law enforcement believes the stabbing occurred sometime earlier Sunday morning, and the victim at some point was taken by private vehicle to UHC for treatment.
An autopsy has been conducted, but the results haven’t been finalized yet.
The investigation began when Mealey responded to UHC after staff had reported to authorities that Harper had been stabbed.
Copass had an initial appearance Monday before Harrison Chief Magistrate Frank DeMarco.
No bond can be set except by a circuit judge in a capital case.
Copass told DeMarco he’s in the Navy; that was confirmed by Lt. Loren Terry of the U.S. Navy Office of Information, who provided Copass’s Navy biography.
It shows Copass, an E-1/airman recruit, was at the Student Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois, from May 11 to July 23, and then was in Pensacola, Florida, from July 23 to Aug. 19 studying his Navy job.
He was on leave, en route to his first command, at the time of the alleged slaying, according to the biography.
The stabbing death is the second this year in Harrison County to be ruled a homicide by authorities.
John Thomas III, 57, of Clarksburg, remains jailed on a murder charge in the alleged March stabbing death of 63-year-old Roy Horton.
In that case, Thomas and Horton were involved in a physical altercation on the porch of 452 S. Chestnut St., Clarksburg, prior to Horton being stabbed in the chest, according to Clarksburg Police Lt. Jason Snider’s prior testimony.
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