It was a violent year in Randolph County
The year started off with a bang, literally, at Plantation Patterns when a workplace shooting sent employees running for cover. After two weeks on the run, Nosquailas Jujuan Blake, 28, of Fruithurt was arrested and charged with shooting his (then) girlfriend’s brother, Ronnie Tatum of Franklin, Ga.
A Roanoke juvenile was charged in the fire that destroyed her family’s home on East Avenue on Jan. 29.
Pamela Allen, 35, of Rock Mills was charged with the death of her 4-year-old daughter, Tamara, on Feb. 1. The little girl died of blunt force trauma to the head, cardiac arrest and severe malnutrition.
An 84-year-old Roanoke man, Sam Little, was killed when a propane gas explosion destroyed his home on County Road 59 in February.
To prepare for extreme events, Homeland Security staged a make-believe incident at Woodland High School in April. It was an odd coincidence the Virginia Tech shootings happened just the week before this drill in which a gunman pretended to kill three students and the school resource officer.
Michael Travis Head, 21, had already spent almost five years in Randolph County Jail in May when he began serving his two life terms, plus 10 years, in the shooting deaths of his father and stepmother, Michael and Vickie Head of Rock Stand, who were killed in the fall of 2005.
James Edward Staples pleaded guilty to stabbing death of his wife, Maria Byrdsong Staples, 33, of Wadley and was sentenced to 23 years. Mrs. Staples was killed in February 2006.
A fugitive in a 2004 assault and death, Danny Lee Henderson, 49, formerly of Woodland, was caught in Savannah, Ga. He is charged with the murder of John Robert “Bobby” Johnson, 77, of Woodland during a confrontation at the victim’s business, Johnson’s Feed Mill on County Road 87 in November 2004. Henderson pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Cecil Gunn, 49, of Lucky Street, Roanoke, was sentenced to 23 years after he pleaded guilty to The April 2006 murder of Tammy Sue Smith, 35.
The parents of a six-week-old baby who died of starvation and dehydration in November 2002 pleaded guilty to his death. The mother, Trevious Foster, 27, of Henry Street, plead guilty to manslaughter, and the father, Undrell Jamar Burkes, 28, of Franklin Street, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide.
The (now former) pastor of El-Bethel Baptist Church and administrator of Pearls of Promise Girls Academy, Robert Stanley Daniel, 59, of Roanoke was arrested in June and charged with charged with rape in first degree, sodomy and 18 misdemeanor charges of distributing obscene material to a minor. The alleged victim was a student at the school. This case has not gone to trial yet.
Another pastor, William Heard, 51, of New Covenant Christian Church in Roanoke was indicted in September on theft of lost property charges, resulting from cross-country investigation that led from Arizona to Tampa to a small business, Exotic Autos, in Wedowee. Heard sold his identification to be used to “purchase” exotic cars in their names.
Also indicted during the fall grand jury was Walter Dron Poythress, 29 of Roanoke. He is charged in capital murder in the cold case involving the March 4, 1999, death of David Norred at his family’s business, Ben’s Pawn Shop.
In October Gregory Terry Bailey, 32, of LaFayette pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Chad Parker, 25, of Woodland. Parker was said to be an innocent bystander during an argument between Bailey and someone else while at a party between Malone and Wedowee on Aug. 21, 2004.
Former bank president Ronnie Whaley pleaded guilty in October to 13 felonies – drug charges, including trafficking and manufacturing methamphetamine, and receiving stolen property.
A former Southern Union State Community College Student faces arson charges in the fire that landed him in the hospital in November. Terrance Monroe Milton, 20, of Roanoke was among the students treated at Randolph Medical Center. It had been the second fire in his room in the past few weeks.
Amanda Noel Herrman Robinson Spruill, 19, of Roanoke was arrested and charged with the murder of her ex-husband’s grandfather, Julian Lovvorn Spruill of Bowdon, Ga. Mr. Spruill was the victim of a home invasion robbery on Nov. 11 and died Nov. 21. Also arrested was Ms. Spruill’s accomplice, James Tyrone Swann, 30, of Maryland. The couple is also suspects in the Oct. 27 death of Roosevelt C. Burke, 62, of Laurel, Md. (Amanda’s mother lives in Maryland.) A teenager caught driving Mr. Burke’s car in Roanoke is also a suspect.
Also in December a small private plane crashed into a field near the Bethel East community killing the pilot and passenger, both from the Huntsville area.
