The case of an Elkins woman accused in the break-in of a Mill Creek bar was bound over to the grand jury Tuesday in Randolph County Magistrate Court.
Tonya Bender, 23, was one of four people charged in the break-in. On Tuesday, Magistrate Ben Shepler dismissed without prejudice one of the charges against her, a felony count of being an accessory before the fact.
Attorney James Hawkins, representing Bender, also made a motion for the other two felony charges against Bender - conspiracy and being an accessory after the fact - to be dismissed as well, but Shepler denied those motions.
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Bender
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Shannon Johnson called Trooper R.W. Jones, of the Elkins detachment of the West Virginia State Police, to the stand during the hearing Tuesday. Jones said he interviewed Bender about 10 hours after the break-in at Haney's Bar in Mill Creek on April 28.
In his closing statement, Hawkins said there was no evidence that Bender committed a crime or tried to conceal evidence of one.
Shepler found probable cause existed, however, and the case was bound over to the circuit court.
The cases of Lonnie Paul Gibson, 27, Travis Gregory Hammonds, 22, and Reva Harris, 20, the other three people arrested in the incident, have already had their cases bound over to the grand jury.
In other magistrate court news, the case of an Elkins man arrested on drug-related charges was bound over to the circuit court Monday.
Brian Keith Hammer, 50, of 1120 S. Henry Ave., was charged June 9 with one felony count of purchase, receipt, acquisition and possession of substances to be used as a precursor to manufacture methamphetamine, according to court records.
Hammer was one of five people arrested earlier this month in an alleged methamphetamine manufacturing operation. The cases of April D. Kenney, 30, Shalae Brooke Studer, 21, Jeffery R. Corley, 48, and Steven "Pacco" B. Miller, 39, had already been bound over to the grand jury.
Contact Brad Johnson by email at bjohnson@theintermountain.com.
