Plumley

ELKINS – A man is behind bars after allegedly breaking into a house and holding a knife to a resident’s throat.

Jakob Joshua Plumley, 23, of Elkins, has been charged with burglary and malicious assault. He is being held in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $25,000 cash-only bond set by Randolph County Magistrate Tracy Harper.

According to the criminal complaint, prepared by Corporal D.E. George of the Elkins Police Department, on March 14 at approximately 6:30 a.m., the officer responded to Main Street to investigate a reported domestic incident. A male caller told a 911 dispatcher that a man “had a knife to his throat.” A second 911 call, from a female, said an unknown man was fighting a male resident of the home “with a knife.”

Once at the home, Plumley spoke to both callers, with the male caller saying he wasn’t sure if the unknown man was still inside the residence, the complaint states. George “cleared the residence” and found no one.

The male caller “had lacerations to his neck and back,” and cuts on his hands which were still bleeding, according to the complaint. The male caller said he was in bed when the unknown man, later identified as Plumley, “came into his bedroom and held a knife to his neck.”

The male caller said he “grabbed the knife in Plumley’s hand and then grabbed a knife from his nightstand to defend himself,” the complaint states. The male caller said Plumley “then ran out of his bedroom and he lost track of where he went.”

Officers observed that a kitchen window “had been broken inward,” according to the complaint. The homeowner “provided video footage from a surveillance camera in the window which showed Plumley walking onto the porch in a blue hoodie and grey sweatpants with red showing from underneath the sweatshirt.

“Officers could hear glass breaking on the video and shortly after, (the male caller) yelling from inside the residence,” the complaint states. “Officers observed what appeared to be blood on the curtain inside the broken window. Officers retrieved the bloody section of curtain for evidence and will send it to the West Virginia State Police Crime Lab for DNA comparison.”

The male caller later notified officers that “he found the knife which Plumley used during the incident and it also had blood on it,” according to the complaint. The knife will also be sent to the crime lab.