Sentencing set for March 2008

Crews extinguish blaze

Drugs apparently played a role in the shooting of a Tazewell County deputy and the armed robbery of two stores in October.
Evidence presented during the Dec. 14 preliminary hearing for Scottie Stinson, 27, of Bandy, Wallace Kinder, 34, of Cedar Bluff and Tracy Coxton, 32 of Tazewell, indicated that the need for money to buy pills was a motive for the robberies.

A Smyth County radio station owner was indicted Dec. 11 on child pornography and child solicitation charges.
Jeffrey L. Raynor, owner and operator of WXMY radio station on Valley Road between Saltville and Chilhowie, was charged with using a computer to solicit minors and possession of child pornography.

A Smyth County grand jury indicted Billy Joe Parris in connection with a shooting that left a Chilhowie police officer wounded in September.
Parris, of Chilhowie, was charged with attempted capital murder of a police officer and use of a firearm in commission of a felony.

Smyth County’s historical museum can stay where it is for now, following the county supervisors’ decision Tuesday to extend an eviction notice issued earlier this fall.
The supervisors voted to give the Smyth County Historical and Museum Society 90 days notice of the time to be out for renovation of the 1908 schoolhouse where it leases space for $1 a year.
In late September, the county mailed the society a notice of eviction effective Jan. 1, 2008, with ideas of razing the building.

Smyth County’s historical museum can stay where it is for now, following the county supervisors’ decision Tuesday to extend an eviction notice issued earlier this fall.
The supervisors voted to give the Smyth County Historical and Museum Society 90 days notice of the time to be out for renovation of the 1908 schoolhouse where it leases space for $1 a year.
In late September, the county mailed the society a notice of eviction effective Jan. 1, 2008, with ideas of razing the building.

Smyth County’s supervisors agreed Tuesday with its planning commission that a site in east Marion be rezoned to allow construction of a new community hospital. All of the supervisors voted in favor of rezoning the proposed site from Agricultural/Rural to Commercial.

A 33-year-old former teacher will spend the next decade behind bars after pleading guilty in October to 17 counts of taking indecent liberties with a child in Smyth County and 12 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in Washington County.

The following felony indictments issued Dec. 11 by the grand jury were on file at the Smyth County Courthouse Thursday. Each defendant’s name is followed by the approximate offense date and the charge. Indictments do not mean the accused is guilty, but only that a grand jury finds there is sufficient reason to send the case to court.