Moore

ELKINS — A Clay County man, who is currently serving time in Huttonsville Correctional Center for voluntary manslaughter and firearm charges, took a plea deal in Randolph County Circuit Court this week and was immediately sentenced for a violent incident with another prisoner.

Cody Brooke Moore, 36, of Ivydale pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding, a felony. Moore allegedly conspired with two other Huttonsville inmates, one of whom had a make-shift weapon, to coordinate an attack on a fellow inmate. Circuit Court Judge David Wilmoth presided.

Moore was initially indicted on one count of malicious assault, one count of conspiracy, one count of offense committed by an inmate and one count of conspiracy by inmates, all felonies. Those counts were dropped in exchange for the plea deal.

Assistant Randolph County Prosecutor Richard Shryock said on Oct. 30, 2023, Moore, alongside Joshua Emery Greene and Dakota Lee Heckert, assaulted another inmate. One of the co-defendants had a “homemade impact weapon,” which was a lock tied to a belt. 

Shryock said the video evidence shows each of the three men striking the victim several times, with Moore punching and kicking the victim while he was on the floor. The victim suffered multiple lacerations to his head, injuries to his jaw and other minor injuries. The fight was broken up by correctional officers.

“It appeared, your Honor, from the video, that this was a coordinated attack,” Shryock told Wilmoth.

Moore, however, said he was the sole initial aggressor in a fight with the other inmate, with the scuffle escalating and both men ending up on the floor. Moore claims that once he saw a group surrounding them, he got up and was pulled into another room by a correctional officer. He stated he did not know the other two men were going to attack the victim.

“I was the initial aggressor, though, so that’s why I decided to take the plea,” Moore told Wilmoth. “I was in the wrong.”

Moore’s attorney, Tyler Resetter, asked on Moore’s behalf that they proceed with sentencing that day instead of on a later date, waiving his right to a pre-sentence investigation. 

Wilmoth ruled that Moore will serve one to five years consecutive with his current sentencing. Moore is currently serving a definite 15 years for voluntary manslaughter and a definite 10 years for the use or presentment of a firearm during the commission of a felony, both of which also run consecutively, for the 2020 shooting death of Benjamin Laughlin.

Laughlin, a four-time winner of the Little Kanawha Conference wrestling championship from Calhoun High School, was found shot multiple times in his home by State Police after receiving a call from a woman saying someone had been shot at her son’s residence. 

According to the criminal complaint, a witness identified Moore as the shooter and said he was driving a pickup truck with an extended cab. Clay County deputies found a vehicle matching the description in the Hansford Fork area, where they then took Moore into custody.