Prosecutor

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- The trial for a Berkeley County couple accused of abusing at least five children in their custody, depriving them of food, shooting them with BBs and bottle rockets, and other physically abusive treatment was postponed Thursday until Jan. 11. Christina Ann Snyder, 41, and Nathan Allen Snyder, 27, of Bunker Hill, W.Va., were indicted in February 2010 on multiple counts of child abuse causing bodily injury. Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Jean Games-Neely and defense attorneys Christopher Prezioso and Thomas Stanley agreed the case needed to be continued.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a State Line, Pa., man accused of killing a woman now identified in court documents as having worked as an informant for a Pennsylvania law enforcement agency. Jeffrey E. Miles Sr., 47, is charged with criminal homicide in the April 3 stabbing death of Kristy Dawn Hoke of Hagerstown. Hoke's body was found in woods in the southern portion of the Borough of Waynesboro a few days later. Miles' arraignment in Franklin County Court is scheduled for 1 p.m. today.

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. -- The trial of a man charged with concealing the body of slaying victim Stephen J. Tamburo Jr. was postponed this week in Morgan County Circuit Court. Donovan "Donnie" Carl Younker, 28, was scheduled for trial Tuesday on one count of concealment of a dead human body, but the trial was postponed on Monday and a status hearing was set for Sept. 8 at 9 a.m. by 23rd Circuit Judge Gina M. Groh. Morgan County Prosecutor Debra MH McLaughlin said Wednesday the trial was postponed because Groh ruled on July 30 that Younker's attorney can call McLaughlin as a witness in the case, which would disqualify her as prosecutor.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Prosecutors in a North Carolina murder case are asking Franklin County (Pa.) Judge Douglas Herman to sign an order to exhume the remains of a woman buried in Brown's Mill Cemetery. Court documents state the Durham County (N.C.) District Attorney's Office is requesting the remains of Janet Christiansen Abaroa for four tests. It wants fingerprints, casts of her hands and marks made on her skeleton by the weapon, as well as an answer to whether there are contact lenses in her eyes.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- The state's case against a former volunteer firefighter accused of starting a fire in which another volunteer firefighter was injured can proceed as indicted, Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Jean Games-Neely said Thursday. The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia filed a decision on Thursday granting the prosecutor's petition for a writ of prohibition in the state's case against James L. Blackford III, according to Jennifer Bundy, the high court's public information officer.

Of the nine Roxbury Correctional Institution officers charged with second-degree assault in connection with a March 2008 assault on an inmate, the fate of only one remains unknown. A trial for Scott Boozel, 28, ended June 16 with a hung jury, and a judge declared a mistrial. Prosecutors have not decided whether to retry Boozel, according to Raquel Guillory, director of communications for the Office of the Attorney General. Prosecutors in June dropped a second-degree assault charge against Reginald Martin, 38. Two of the officers, Timothy Mellott, 23, and Lucas Kelly, 29, who now lives in Wyoming, agreed to testify against their former colleagues as part of a plea agreement.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Berkeley County Prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely said she expects later today to receive a report from an autopsy conducted on the body of Katherine Nicole Sharp, who was found dead in her Martinsburg-area home after her former boyfriend ended a 26-hour standoff with police. Games-Neely said she expects the autopsy being performed in Morgantown, W.Va., to determine the cause of death of the 35-year-old Martinsburg mother of two. Donald Berkeley Surber, 37, of Winchester, Va., was arraigned on kidnapping charges Monday afternoon shortly after his arrest.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A Berkeley County assistant prosecutor who was sued in circuit court last year by a West Virginia State Police trooper in a landlord-tenant dispute has resigned from Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Jean Games-Neely's office. Games-Neely notified the Berkeley County Commission of Gregory V. Smith's resignation in a Jan. 14 memo and noted his last day of employment would be next Friday. It was not clear whether the lawsuit, which is still pending in circuit court, contributed to Smith's resignation.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Angela Rosenberry Krom is expected to announce her candidacy at noon Monday for Judge of the 39th District of the Court of Common Pleas at the American Legion in McConnellsburg, Pa., and at 5 p.m. at the Franklin Fire Hall in Chambersburg. The campaign also will include a "kickoff" event Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Waynesboro Ambulance Squad Building. Krom is a prosecutor with the Franklin County District Attorney's Office, where she has been employed full time since 1996.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Franklin County Assistant District Attorney Timothy D. Wilmot on Tuesday became the second person to declare his candidacy for one of two openings on the 39th Judicial District of the Court of Common Pleas. Wilmot, 47, of Chambersburg, joins County Solicitor Shawn Meyers, who announced in November that he is running for the bench in the 39th District, which encompasses Franklin and Fulton counties. "My goal in this campaign is simple: That the people of the community come to know who I am, what I value and what I have done that has prepared me to be a judge," Wilmot told a group of about 90 supporters in front of the Franklin County Courthouse.