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08-16-2005, 10:32 AM
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
The widowed 69-year-old Leesville Road woman was half asleep when she went into her bathroom around 3:30 a.m.
Moments later, she noticed a masked man pointing a gun at her and standing in the bathroom doorway.
“What are you doing there?” she asked him.
“This is what I do,” she said he told her.
After stealing $700 cash from the woman’s jewelry box, the man, carrying a bag of tools, told her to get into bed, she said.
“He told me to call him Mad Max,” the woman said Monday in Lynchburg Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. The testimony, which revealed new details about the May 5 crime that shocked the area, came during a hearing in which the judge ruled that the woman’s accused assailant be tried as an adult in Circuit Court.
That man, who police believe is Shay William Ward, now 18, sat only a few feet away from the woman as she testified.
Save for a single glance in Ward’s direction, the woman didn’t look at him during the hearing.
The woman testified that after her attacker spoke to her, he switched off the light and demanded she perform a sexual act on him. When she refused, he told her he would shoot her.
“I told him to go ahead. I’m not doing that,” the woman said.
That’s when the man raped her, she said. Afterward, he beat her in the head with a crowbar until she passed out.
After hearing the woman’s testimony, J&D Judge Bill Light certified the 12 felonies against Ward to Circuit Court, which means that after the evidence goes before the September grand jury, Ward will be tried as an adult.
Because Ward was 17 at the time of the incident, the case against him could have been tried in juvenile court. He turned 18 two days later. Even if Ward is later convicted in Circuit Court, he could still be sentenced as a juvenile by the judge.
Police linked Ward to the crime after a friend told police Ward told him about the crime, and items from that incident as well as a robbery and burglary in Campbell County days earlier were found at his home on Greystone Drive.
Ward, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, his eyes red-rimmed and his hair closely cropped and brown, looked noticeably different from his police mug shot.
The woman testified that she suffered a cracked skull, required five rows of stitches to seal the gash on her head and now has trouble hearing out of her right ear.
“I had trouble hearing on my left side and now I have trouble hearing on this (right) side,” she said.
Lynchburg Investigator D.W. Black testified that Ward admitted to police he had consumed an over-the-counter cough medication - Coricidin - and that he went for a walk and broke into the woman’s house.
Ward remembered going into the house and counting the money, but said he couldn’t recall anything after the bathroom encounter with the woman, Black said.
Ward also couldn’t recall if he had a gun, but police recovered a .38 special at his house on Greystone Drive.
After the evidence goes before the grand jury next month, Commonwealth’s Attorney Bill Petty and defense attorney James Angel will get together and set a trial date, Angel said after court.
Ward, who has been held without bond since his arrest May 15, will be in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court again on Thursday, this time in Campbell County. He is charged with seven felonies in connection to an April 25 burglary and a May 3 robbery just yards from his own home. Campbell County prosecutors also are seeking to try the case in adult court.
After Lynchburg’s hearing Monday, Ward’s parents said their son’s actions were out of character and that the medicine he had taken was to blame.
“People know the charges,” mother Beverly Harris said. “People don’t know Shay.”
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satelli...784326377&path= (http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA/MGArticle/LNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784326377&path=)
The widowed 69-year-old Leesville Road woman was half asleep when she went into her bathroom around 3:30 a.m.
Moments later, she noticed a masked man pointing a gun at her and standing in the bathroom doorway.
“What are you doing there?” she asked him.
“This is what I do,” she said he told her.
After stealing $700 cash from the woman’s jewelry box, the man, carrying a bag of tools, told her to get into bed, she said.
“He told me to call him Mad Max,” the woman said Monday in Lynchburg Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. The testimony, which revealed new details about the May 5 crime that shocked the area, came during a hearing in which the judge ruled that the woman’s accused assailant be tried as an adult in Circuit Court.
That man, who police believe is Shay William Ward, now 18, sat only a few feet away from the woman as she testified.
Save for a single glance in Ward’s direction, the woman didn’t look at him during the hearing.
The woman testified that after her attacker spoke to her, he switched off the light and demanded she perform a sexual act on him. When she refused, he told her he would shoot her.
“I told him to go ahead. I’m not doing that,” the woman said.
That’s when the man raped her, she said. Afterward, he beat her in the head with a crowbar until she passed out.
After hearing the woman’s testimony, J&D Judge Bill Light certified the 12 felonies against Ward to Circuit Court, which means that after the evidence goes before the September grand jury, Ward will be tried as an adult.
Because Ward was 17 at the time of the incident, the case against him could have been tried in juvenile court. He turned 18 two days later. Even if Ward is later convicted in Circuit Court, he could still be sentenced as a juvenile by the judge.
Police linked Ward to the crime after a friend told police Ward told him about the crime, and items from that incident as well as a robbery and burglary in Campbell County days earlier were found at his home on Greystone Drive.
Ward, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, his eyes red-rimmed and his hair closely cropped and brown, looked noticeably different from his police mug shot.
The woman testified that she suffered a cracked skull, required five rows of stitches to seal the gash on her head and now has trouble hearing out of her right ear.
“I had trouble hearing on my left side and now I have trouble hearing on this (right) side,” she said.
Lynchburg Investigator D.W. Black testified that Ward admitted to police he had consumed an over-the-counter cough medication - Coricidin - and that he went for a walk and broke into the woman’s house.
Ward remembered going into the house and counting the money, but said he couldn’t recall anything after the bathroom encounter with the woman, Black said.
Ward also couldn’t recall if he had a gun, but police recovered a .38 special at his house on Greystone Drive.
After the evidence goes before the grand jury next month, Commonwealth’s Attorney Bill Petty and defense attorney James Angel will get together and set a trial date, Angel said after court.
Ward, who has been held without bond since his arrest May 15, will be in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court again on Thursday, this time in Campbell County. He is charged with seven felonies in connection to an April 25 burglary and a May 3 robbery just yards from his own home. Campbell County prosecutors also are seeking to try the case in adult court.
After Lynchburg’s hearing Monday, Ward’s parents said their son’s actions were out of character and that the medicine he had taken was to blame.
“People know the charges,” mother Beverly Harris said. “People don’t know Shay.”
http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satelli...784326377&path= (http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=LNA/MGArticle/LNA_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784326377&path=)