Both sides want trial continued in case of Buffey codefendant

Harrison Chief Judge Thomas A. Bedell has yet to rule.

Bowers, 29, of Clarksburg, is charged with first-degree sexual assault, burglary and first-degree robbery.

Wilson and attorney David B. DeMoss, court-appointed counsel for Bowers, recently were granted permission to hire an Ohio DNA laboratory for DNA testing. The defense lawyers have commissioned the lab to test evidence Clarksburg police collected following the attack, but won’t get the results back until the “eve of trial,” Armstrong’s motion contends.

The sides would like a bit more time — “no more than one month” — to review and analyze the results, Armstrong represented to Bedell.

Bowers’ trial is currently set to begin the week of April 27.

Codefendant Joseph A. Buffey, 32, also of Clarksburg, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count of first-degree robbery and is in prison, not eligible for parole until 2041.

However, attorneys for the Innocence Project of New York and Allan N. Karlin Associates of Morgantown are trying to overturn Buffey’s convictions, contending he is innocent and was coerced into his guilty pleas.

Efforts to clear Buffey through DNA analysis pointed a finger at Bowers while he was in prison on unrelated charges. Bowers was a juvenile at the time of the attack, but former Harrison County prosecutor Joe Shaffer decided to charge Bowers as an adult.

Also:

— Jason Lindsay Dixon, 40, of Bridgeport, has been charged with possession with intent to distribute heroin and leaving the scene of an accident with injury (Erin’s Law).

Sunday afternoon, Dixon’s Hyundai Sonata rear-ended a Chevy S-10 southbound on Interstate 79 near the Jerry Dove Drive exit, Bridgeport Officer Gregory Collins has alleged.

The pickup flipped and struck an embankment in the median, requiring hospital treatment for both passengers, the complaint alleges. Dixon didn’t stop; he was found in Quiet Dell about 15 minutes later by Harrison County Deputy J.M. Kennedy, complaints allege.

Sgt. C. Moore searched the vehicle and found six individually wrapped bags of “what was identified by Mr. Dixon as raw heroin,” a Harrison Street Crimes and Drug unit deputy has alleged.

In an interview with a Street Crimes and Drug unit sergeant, Dixon said he bought the heroin off the Star City exit of Interstate 79, a criminal complaint alleges. The heroin equated to 150 stamps (or three bricks), with a street value of about $3,000, the complaint alleges.

— No significant developments were reported in the weekly 8 a.m. Monday status conference for quadruple homicide suspect Sidney Arthur Muller.

The defense is still in the process of receiving and sharing the findings of its four experts with the prosecution. And the state still has behavioral health testing of Muller, 28, of Marion County, scheduled for late this month before Huntington forensic psychiatrist Dr. Bobby Miller.

Muller’s trial on four murder charges has been postponed from April until August, with Harrison County Chief Judge Thomas A. Bedell presiding.

— Michael William Hawkins, 37, has pleaded guilty to two counts of delivery of heroin and will be sentenced May 13 by Bedell.

The state will make no sentencing recommendation as part of the plea agreement. Another delivery charge and two conspiracy charges were dropped.

The Harrison County Street Crimes and Drug unit investigated.

Hawkins remains jailed on $250,000 bond.

— A woman whose pretrial diversion was revoked for failing drug screens and not checking in with probation while on bond has been sentenced to prison.

Harrison County Circuit Judge John Lewis Marks Jr. ruled after Prosecutor Rachel Romano asked the court to send Megan Erane Cogar to the Anthony Correctional Center for young offenders. Defense attorney Jason Glass, meanwhile, had requested probation with inpatient substance abuse treatment for Cogar, 22, of Bridgeport.

Marks sentenced Cogar to 2 years for felony fraudulent use of an access device. She will be eligible for parole after having served a total of 6 months (she can hit that mark in about 2 months with time already served). Cogar can discharge the sentence with day-for-day good time credit after a year behind bars.

— Mark Anthony Wood, 31, and Stephanie Dawn Ware, 30, of Clarksburg, have been charged with daytime burglary in an investigation by Harrison County deputies J.B. Napier and L.J. Senderak.

The deputies, dispatched to a suspicious vehicle complaint, caught the defendants in the act of stealing items from a dwelling, criminal complaints allege.

Chief Magistrate Frank DeMarco set bond at $25,000 each.

— Harrison County Magistrate Warren “Gizzy” Davis on Monday found probable cause for a felony threats of terroristic acts charge against Clifford Frederick Christian Jr.

Christian, 71, of Clarksburg, angered about having his appointment canceled because he was late, threatened to kill doctors and staff at Mountain State Medical Specialties near United Hospital Center, a registration clerk testified.

Christian also “said he had served in the military, and he wasn’t afraid to do what needed to be done,” the clerk testified.

The defendant also said “all women and children need to be treated like they were treated in Iraq,” the clerk testified.

A patient intervened between the female front-desk staff members and Christian, the woman testified.

On cross-examination by Assistant Defender Vanessa Welch, the woman said Christian had threatened only employees, not other patients.

Welch also got the woman to talk about the fact that Christian talks using a voice box.

Bridgeport Officer James Frenzel led the investigation. Chief Assistant Prosecutor Susan Morris is the state’s attorney.

— Clarence Otto America, 47, of West Union, has been sentenced to 1-3 years in prison and fined $3,000 by Bedell for felony third-offense driving on a license revoked for DUI.

Bedell has scheduled a plea hearing for America in another case in which he’s accused of committing the same crime while free on bond.

— Bedell has placed Jacob Warnimont, 19, of Cloverdale, Ohio, on probation for 2 years for conspiracy to commit burglary.

The defendant could face 1-5 years and a $10,000 fine if he violates his supervised release.

Warnimont and another male had been accused by Salem Officer Travis Snuffer in a break-in at a home on Hudson Street in Salem.

— Karleen Joyce Price, 60, of Shinnston, has waived her probable cause hearing before Harrison County Magistrate Tammy Marple on a charge of felony embezzlement by fiduciary.

Harrison County Deputy Zach Mealey alleges Price withdrew about $26,200 before closing her mom’s checking account in a bid to conceal the money from an upcoming guardianship and conservatorship process.

— Jessica Lynne Plyman Gatto, 33, of Clarksburg, has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor indecent exposure, resolving a case in which she initially had been charged with burglary, according to Prosecutor Rachel Romano.

Gatto urinated outside a home, then quickly after that was apprehended by police inside the dwelling, Romano said.

The defendant had been drinking, according to Romano.

Gatto’s sentence was 90 days in jail, the time she served awaiting prosecution.