Brickles

DURBIN – A Randolph County man is facing a murder charge after allegedly firing a gun into a home on New Year’s morning, resulting in the death of a man inside the residence.

Jason Franklin Brickles, 47, of Valley Head, has been charged with second degree murder and six counts of wanton endangerment, both felonies. He is being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $600,000 bond.

Brickles was apparently angry with another man, but in shooting at him, one of the bullets inadvertently struck a different, uninvolved man in the home, police said.

According to the criminal complaint, prepared by Cpl. D.M. Brock of the West Virginia State Police, Brock was dispatched to Oak Drive in the Durbin area for a report of a shooting at about 2 a.m. Wednesday.

On the scene, Brock learned that Christopher Matheny “had died as a result of a gunshot wound to his lower abdomen,” the complaint states. “Witnesses at the scene identified the shooter as Jason Brickles.”

Video surveillance footage of the residence showed a utility van pull into the driveway, followed by a white pickup truck, according to the complaint. The van’s driver can be seen exiting the vehicle and entering the residence.

The complaint states that two gunshots can then be heard on the video, and then Brickles can be heard saying, “Where’d you go, you piece of s***?” Two more gunshots are then heard on the video, and then Brickles can be seen walking toward the front steps with a gun in his hand, saying “I’ll f****** kill you next time.”

Matheny was seated on a couch directly behind the front door of the home, according to the complaint. One of the bullets struck him in the left side. “This wound proved to be fatal,” Brock wrote.

Officers located two bullet holes in the driver’s side door of the van, one bullet hole in the side of the residence and one through the home’s front door, the complaint states.

Brock wrote that six people were inside the home at the time of the shooting, including two juveniles.

Brickles had left the scene, and was later located by Randolph County Sheriff’s deputies at his residence near Valley Head, according to the complaint.

Questioned by officers, Brickles said he had a confrontation with the van driver because the driver “had kidnapped and raped his wife,” the complaint states. Brickles said he fired rounds into a home that the van driver ran into, and “stated he did not intend to kill Mr. Matheny.”