Police and courts

Woman turns in

grandson for theft

A woman turned in her grandson, who was wanted by police,according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha Magistrate Court.

Jeffrey D. Tompa, 32, of Glasgow was arrested Monday after beingfound inside his mother's residence.

Police had been searching for him since last week, when he wasaccused of going to his grandmother's home and breaking into hertool shed. When she confronted him, he threw her to the ground,according to a criminal complaint filed by the West Virginia StatePolice.

The grandmother then dialed 911, but Tompa took her phone andfled the residence, according to the criminal complaint.

Tompa also stole his grandmother's lawnmower, according to thecomplaint. The mower is valued at about $200, the report said.

Tompa is wanted for domestic battery and petit larceny.

The grandmother turned him in Monday, according to the criminalcomplaint filed by State Police Trooper S.D. Schoolcraft.

Tompa's mother, Patricia Tompa, told police she told her sonSunday not to come to her residence any longer.

He was charged with daytime burglary, giving false information topolice and trespassing.

Tompa was being held in South Central Regional Jail.

Ga. man arrested

at doughnut shop

Kanawha County Sheriff's deputies arrested a Georgia man wantedfor cruelty and battery of children.

He was captured outside a St. Albans doughnut and coffee shop.

Jeffrey Allen Lee II, 27, had eluded Kanawha County Sheriff'sdeputies Oct. 31 after fighting with them, police said. He wasspotted by one of those deputies, who was off-duty, about 8:30 p.m.Monday in a car at Tim Horton's in St. Albans, according to St.Albans Police Lt. James P. Agee.

St. Albans officers rushed to the scene and arrested Lee withoutincident.

Lee had been residing on Bigley Avenue in Charleston whensheriff's deputies went to arrest him last week on a fugitive fromjustice warrant from Paulding County, Ga. Details of his allegedcrimes there were not available.

Lee was being held without bond in South Central Regional Jail.

School locks down

after man escapes

KENNA - Kenna Elementary School in Jackson County was locked downfor several hours after a man escaped from a police cruiser not farfrom the school.

Michael James, 29, of Goldtown, was involved in a domesticdispute early Monday.

Still in handcuffs, James fled a cruiser about 5:30 a.m. while adeputy was taking statements, said Jackson County Sheriff'sDepartment Chief Deputy B.W. Dewees.

The spot where he escaped was about four or five miles away fromthe school.

James then got a gun at his father-in-law's house, authoritiessaid.

The grade school was locked down for about four hours whilepolice searched for James.

It was reopened about 1 p.m. after they found him near theInterstate 77 Goldtown exit.

Dewees said James had somehow removed the cuffs.

"The kids were safe," said Kenna Principal Mike King. "We triedto have as normal a school day as possible."

Man jailed for

illegal drugs

A North Carolina man is in jail for allegedly illegallypossessing both marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms.

Christopher Joe Hembree, 32, of Walkertown was seen stopped in avehicle on MacCorkle Avenue in Chesapeake for about an hour onFriday, according to a press release from the Kanawha CountySheriff's Department.

According to the release, Deputy J.M. Vernon became suspiciousand approached the car, which was filled with three people. He wasaided by K-9 units and Chesapeake Police, the release stated.

The K-9 unit indicated there was a presence of drugs in the car,and police found a large bag containing hallucinogenic mushrooms anda separate bag containing marijuana, all packaged separately forsale, according to the news release.

Hembree admitted the drugs were his and he was arrested, thereport said.

The release did not indicate if the other two passengers werecharged.

He was taken to South Central Regional Jail and is charged withfelony possession with intent to deliver marijuana and mushrooms.

Police looking for

suspected burglar

Police today were searching for a Chesapeake man suspected ofbreaking into a South Hills home and dropping some items after beingdiscovered by a woman who lived there.

A warrant was issued for Brian Franklin Petry, 29, after he wasidentified through a photo lineup.

The incident occurred on Monday morning when Elizabeth Knighton,who lives on Brookstone Road, heard the doorbell ring. She did notanswer, figuring it was only a delivery, according to a pressrelease from the Charleston Police Department.

Knighton then heard a door open, and when she went toinvestigate, she saw a man in her dining room with his hands full ofitems from the home, the release said.

The report says Knighton yelled at the man, who said he must bein the wrong house before he dropped the items and left.

She was able to note the license plate number and get adescription of the car as he left, according to the report.

An investigation revealed the man had pried open a back door andpossibly pilfered through the downstairs, according to Sgt. AaronJames.

The car was registered to Petry's girlfriend, but she is notsuspected in the crime.

Petry reportedly knows he is wanted but has yet to turn himselfin to authorities.

Charleston police

arrest father, son

Police arrested two Charleston men, a father and son, forallegedly committing separate crimes in the same week.

Les E. Bumpus, 47, and his son, Les Van Bumpus, 19, both of ParkAvenue, were arrested and taken into custody on Thursday and Sunday,respectively, according to police reports from the Charleston PoliceDepartment.

A report by Patrolman O.B. Morris says he received a call about amale with a gun on a KRT bus.

Morris stopped the bus on the East End, and the driver steppedoff to speak with police. That's when a man got off the bus andbegan running across the nearby Gino's Pizza parking lot and thenbehind Tudor's Biscuit World, the report said.

Morris gave chase, and when they rounded the corner, he heard thesound of metal hitting and sliding across pavement, so he pointedout the area to Cpl. E.W. Smith, the report said.

The man was apprehended in the next parking lot, and Smithlocated a gun where Morris indicated it had been thrown, the reportsaid.

The man, identified as Bumpus, is charged with carrying aconcealed weapon and fleeing on foot.

His son, Les Van, was sitting with a group of people on somesteps at Winston Court in Littlepage Terrace on Charleston's WestSide on Sunday, when plain-clothes officer A.C. Napier smelledmarijuana and observed an open container of beer, according to hisreport.

Napier wrote in the report that Detective J. Hunt displayed hisbadge and told people in the group to put up their hands, but theyounger Bumpus turned around and attempted to go up the steps.

He was told to come back down, and when he did, on the stepswhere he was sitting, there was a plastic bag with .8 grams of field-tested crack cocaine in it, the report said.

He was charged with simple possession of crack cocaine.

Man pleads guilty

to escaping facility

A Beckley man pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to escapingfrom a community correctional facility in Charleston.

Emmanuel Stoumile, 22, admitted that he left Bannam Place, wherehe was serving a sentence for dealing crack cocaine, on Aug. 21,according to a news release from federal prosecutors.

U.S. marshals traced Stoumile to a relative's residence inBeckley where he was arrested.

Chief U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin scheduled Stoumile'ssentencing for Jan. 28. Stoumile faces up to five years in prisonand fines up to $250,000.

Man accused of

wrecking golf green

A Charleston man is accused of vandalizing a local golf course.

Police have issued a warrant for Tristan Michael Jones, 25, ofEdgewood Drive.

He is accused of driving his beige colored Jeep through the gateand onto Cato Golf Course on Oct. 15 about 3 a.m., according to acriminal complaint filed in Kanawha Magistrate Court.

According to the report filed by the Charleston PoliceDepartment, Jones then drove onto the golf course and did doughnutsthroughout the green.

John Charnock, the city's director of Parks and Recreation, saidthere were tracks left all over the fifth hole.

"They knocked down the six-foot gate with their vehicle," hesaid.

Charnock said although there was extensive damage to the greenand around the hole, an estimated $1,100, the destruction did notnoticeably affect business.

"We're not very crowded right now due to the time of year. It wasjust a hassle that we had to work on it," he said.

Jones' Edgewood Drive home is in the immediate vicinity of thecourse.

The gate was rammed just behind the fifth hole, Charnock said.

No other vandalism was reported at the park.

Jones is wanted for destruction of property, a misdemeanor.

Police treating

death as homicide

Police are following leads to determine what happened to a GlenJean man who was found dead.

Arthur L. Thomas, 52, was found dead inside his home by a familymember on Sunday, according to a press release from West VirginiaState Police.

According to the release, "the manner in which the body was foundwould suggest it was not accidental or self-inflicted."

The method of death or time of death has yet to be determined,but the body was sent to the medical examiner's office, the releasesaid.

Interviews are being conducted to establish a time line ofpersons associated and involved with Thomas in the last severaldays, according to the release.

Sr. Trooper C.L. Adkins is leading the investigation.

compiled from staff reports