Charges certified

By Jimmy LaRoue
The News Virginian
A Waynesboro man charged with shooting his ex-girlfriend in the head had his case certified following a preliminary hearing Monday. The case goes before a Waynesboro grand jury Sept. 8.
Sam Wesley Earhart, 42, of Waynesboro, faces seven charges in connection with the alleged shooting. The charges include malicious shooting, two charges of malicious assault, assault of a law enforcement officer, felony weapons possession, eluding police and felonious driving after being declared a habitual offender.
Two other charges – one for driving while intoxicated and another for refusing a blood/breathalyzer test – were dropped.
The alleged victim, Susan Keith, also of Waynesboro, testified Monday in Waynesboro General District Court that Earhart, with whom she had a previous relationship, came to the Quadrangle Apartments on Fourth Street, knocked on her apartment door, entered and proceeded to put a gun to her head.
“He came in pushing,” Keith said.
Earhart, she said, accused her of seeing someone else.
Keith said she was unsure at first what had happened to her.
“I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t hear,” Keith said. “I thought he hit me with the barrel [of the gun].”
Doctors at Augusta Medical Center later determined that her wounds came from a gunshot to the head, according to police.
Michelle Childress, who works at the apartment complex, said she was in her office at the time of the incident and did not see or hear any shots fired. She emerged and said she saw Earhart on top of Keith.
“I was yelling and screaming at him to get off of her,” Childress said.
Childress said that Keith then screamed that Earhart had a gun — a .38 caliber handgun, according to police.
When she looked at Keith, Childress said she saw blood everywhere.
Childress said that Earhart then left in Keith’s car, a gold Plymouth Acclaim, carrying two longneck bottles of beer.
According to police, Earhart was spotted on North Delphine Avenue driving erratically and refusing to stop for police, though he did not exceed 40 mph during the chase. Police then cornered him on Whippoorwill Way, where he refused to comply with police orders to show his hands and get out of the car, police said.
Because he was armed, police said they used a stun gun to apprehend Earhart.