First-degree murder charge is certified

STAUNTON — Moments before a first-degree murder charge was certified to a grand jury Wednesday, a Stuarts Draft murder suspect spoke out.

“Can I represent myself?” John Michael Mason asked the judge.

“I suppose you could at some proper stage of the proceedings ... that would be highly foolish,” answered Judge Joseph Hess, explaining a hearing could be arranged.

He remanded Mason back to Middle River Regional Jail where he awaits Staunton grand jury day April 20. Defense attorneys James Dungan and Eric Laurenzo declined to comment after the hearing.

Mason, 27, shot ex-girlfriend Amanda Kaye Bush, 20, on a Hillcrest neighborhood street Nov. 30, police said.

Five hours later and 175 miles south, near the North Carolina border, an intoxicated Mason wrecked his rented 2008 Dodge Charger and tussled with a Virginia State Police trooper, according to authorities.

Authorities discovered Mason was wanted in Staunton for first-degree murder and two firearms charges. He faces DUI, resisting arrest and concealed weapon charges in Carroll County.

In court Wednesday, Jeff Jordan, who hired Bush as a nanny for his four children, testified she had broken up with Mason two nights before the shooting.

One of Jordan’s sons testified he heard a “pop noise” after Mason and Bush left, arguing, from his home on the 2700 block of Knollwood Drive.

The boy said he saw Mason jump in his car and drive off.

A neighbor testified she was nearly run off the road by Mason moments later as he exited the neighborhood.

The boy and neighbor testified they saw Mason leaving alone in a Dodge Charger — the same car he wrecked in Lambsburg on a slight curve of Route 620 near Exit 1 of Interstate 77, according to state police.

Staunton police Sgt. Mark Diehl testified that .38-caliber bullets found in Bush’s head and in a gun discovered by state police in Mason’s pant leg were a match.

Ballistics tests showed the bullets matched.

Mason, just before questioning of the last witness concluded, addressed the judge, asking for a retrial. The judge, deferring to defense counsel, did not grant the “motion.”

The state police sex offender registry lists Mason as being on probation for 2002 and 2003 convictions for having carnal knowledge of a child 13 to 15 in Staunton and Augusta County. Court records show that Mason also was convicted of hit-and-run, eluding police and maiming caused by DWI in 2003.