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ELKINS -- Probable cause was found in Randolph County Magistrate Court in the case of a Valley Head man accused of allegedly running over another man with an ATV.
Joseph Lee Shipman, 37, who is charged with malicious or unlawful assault, appeared in Magistrate Court for a preliminary hearing. He is currently being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $25,000 cash-only bond.
At the hearing's start, Shipman's defense attorney, Morris Davis, asked Randolph County Magistrate Benjamin Shepler for a modification to Shipman's bond, citing that he lived in the area and was not a flight risk. Assistant Randolph County Prosecutor Leckta Poling disagreed, stating that the state believed that Shipman was a flight risk and that he had been hiding before his arrest.
Shepler denied Davis' request, citing that due to low to nonexistent cell phone service in Valley Head, there is not a large police presence in Valley Head to monitor Shipman if he made bond.
Shipman is accused of running over Jeffrey Stanton of Valley Head with an ATV in the early morning hours of June 30. Stanton was called as a witness by Poling during the hearing.
When asked by Poling as to what occurred on June 30, Stanton said he had walked to town and was with a man and Shipman's "ex-girlfriend" outside the Valley Head Post Office reportedly around 2:30 a.m. when Shipman suddenly ran him over with the ATV.
"All I heard was he was gonna kill me and I got run over," Stanton said.
After being struck, Stanton claimed that Shipman tried to hit him again, but he was able to get out of the way. Stanton said he was then taken "by a buddy" to a friend's house.
Stanton said his injuries included a break in the "bottom plate" above his left kneecap, a scar down his left arm and a scar near his eye on the left side of his face. Stanton added later that he had to have surgery to put two screws in his leg the day after the incident and that he has been unable to work since.
According to the criminal complaint prepared by Trooper Brenton K. Riffle of the Elkins detachment of the West Virginia State Police, a female caller had informed him on June 30 that Shipman had run over Stanton on a four-wheeler and "then messaged her saying he was going to kill (the man)." Stanton did not make any calls to 911 to report the incident or to receive medical attention.
When asked why he did not call 911 by Morris during cross examination, Stanton said he, the other man, Shipman's reported ex-girlfriend and the friend he was staying with did not have access to phones at the time.
Morris asked Stanton why he believed Shipman wanted to kill him, to which Stanton replied that he didn't know, but it may have had something to do with the reported ex-girlfriend.
"I don't know," Stanton said. "… His ex-girlfriend went to my house to get her stuff, maybe."
Riffle, who was also called as a witness by Poling, testified about the text messages that Shipman allegedly sent to the woman who called 911 to report the incident
Both Riffle and documents shown in court said that Shipman sent texts that stated, "I just ran over Jeffrey because (a woman) went with him," and "Yea and if he says anything to the cops ill kill him and he knows it."
The defense did not call any witnesses.
Davis argued in closing remarks that Stanton was an unreliable witness as the defense believed he had not told the court everything that happened the night he was allegedly run over by Shipman, calling into question why Stanton and several others at the scene did not have access to phones and did not contact police or EMS.
Poling, in rebuttal, called Davis' argument speculative in nature. Shepler admitted that perhaps there could be more that Stanton was not telling the court, but he also stated that Stanton was not the one being charged.
"Mr. Stanton may have been into something else that evening," Shepler said. "Who knows, but Mr. Stanton is not the one here for a preliminary hearing on malicious or unlawful assault. Mr. Shipman is."
Shepler found probable cause that "Mr. Shipman was the operator of the ATV" and that "that ATV hit Mr. Stanton," bounding the case over to the grand jury.