STAUNTON — Nobody caught Jose Orlando Romero-Feliciano easily.

Tracking him meant a chase to the south of the country, down into the twin cities of Louisiana, next to the bank of the Ouachita River.

After two decades of silence, a 37-year-old woman decided to tell her story.

That led deputies to arrest James Preston McLaughlin, 57, of Waynesboro, for sexual crimes they said he committed.

Authorities charged Christopher Stagner, 35, of West Augusta, with maiming as a result of driving under the influence, Friday after a July vehicle accident on Braley Pond Road.

A 73-year-old Staunton man pleaded guilty Monday in Augusta County Circuit Court to sexually assaulting a mentally retarded blind woman.

John Oehlerking faced an Augusta County Circuit Court judge Monday, and pleaded to a reduced charge of sexual battery, court officials said.

He was sentenced to a year in prison.

Egleston pleads guilty to reduced charge

Assault second recent scrape at speedway

HARRISONBURG – John Franklin Myers spent his 45th birthday in jail Wednesday, just a day before a Rockingham County judge certified to grand jury a murder charge against him.

Authorities on Thursday charged Kim Bernard Gilham, 53, of Staunton, for taking indecent liberties with a child. Officials with the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to calls seeking more information about the case.

The longtime girlfriend of a man jailed Thursday over a fatal fight said the victim’s account of the brawl — written two days before a hemorrhage killed him — doesn’t tell the full story.

Authorities charged Russell “Rusty” Huntley, 24, of Verona, with manslaughter in the death of Chad Fields, 26. Authorities said Fields died from injuries Huntley inflicted in an altercation earlier this month in a Dollar General parking lot.

A Waynesboro woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to abduction and child abuse more than a year after she held a teenage girl against her will and refused to feed her, causing the child’s weight to plunge to 61 pounds.

A Waynesboro man filed an Alford plea Wednesday to aggravated sexual battery charges.

Augusta County Judge Victor V. Ludwig sentenced David Dwight Cosner, 40, to a year behind bars. Under the Alford plea, Cosner acknowledged that the evidence against him was strong enough to convict him of assaulting a toddler but he stopped short of admitting guilt.

STAUNTON — Augusta County’s former information technology director has been indicted on charges he misused government equipment.

Authorities recovered computers and electronics worth “several thousand dollars” from the home of Rick L. Vernier after receiving a tip that he had county property in his Stuarts Draft home, said Lt. A.C. Powers of the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office. 

An Augusta County grand jury Monday indicted Timothy Aaron Wilkins, 39, of Churchville, in the murder of his girlfriend.

Augusta County Sheriff’s deputies testified they found Misty M. Phillips, 36, of Staunton, strangled and stuffed in the back of Wilkins’ Toyota 4 Runner in the Food Lion parking lot in Verona.

The yellow moped gave him away.

Interrupted by a Staunton homeowner during a burglary attempt Monday morning, Matthew S. Carr, 28, raced from the front door to the moped as the victim futilely gave chase, authorities said. When the victim’s wife spotted the moped on a nearby street, she yanked Carr to the ground, authorities said. Still, he managed to get away.

Joan Byrne, a resident on Misty Hill Lane, reported catching a red fox Monday morning after she set up traps for groundhogs, luring them with cat food.

Authorities arrested Christopher L. Simmons, 29, of Staunton, Thursday for one count of grand larceny and one count of petty larceny. Simmons didn’t go easy though, police said.

Simmons locked himself inside his vehicle and threatened to kill himself with a crossbow. The Augusta County Sheriff’s office brought a negotiator and a tactical team to the scene.

STAUNTON – In the Stuarts Draft man’s head, if he could remove his ex-wife and her fiancée from the equation, he would get his children back. So he hired a hitman.

That’s how Assistant Attorney General Phil Figura explained the actions of Thomas Joseph Laguardia Sr. during a plea hearing Monday in Augusta County Circuit Court.

Darius Swales, of Waynesboro, pleaded guilty Monday to simple assault and battery.

STAUNTON — A Staunton Circuit Court grand jury indicted Steven Bruce Joplin, 59, of Middlebrook, after authorities charged him with seven counts of aggravated sexual battery of a minor under age 13.

Man charged with attempting to have ex-wife, her boyfriend killed

Six 20-year-old men, armed with flashlights and driver’s licenses from faraway states and poking around the old DeJarnette Center, caught the attention of police Thursday night.

A Staunton officer on patrol noticed the men, and the darting beams of their flashlights, when he pulled forward to investigate at the defunct center off Route 250, said Staunton police Capt. Leslie Miller.

An Augusta County judge Thursday certified to grand jury charges against a Shenandoah man accused of stabbing another at Eastside Speedway.

STAUNTON — The situation seemed suspect: a discarded Doritos bag filled with pills and cigarettes.

Cameras at Middle River Regional Jail in Verona stared at the bag for hours. That’s when things unraveled for a Stuarts Draft pair, authorities said.

Rape suspect Albert A. Sledd, shook his head through most of a hearing Wednesday, but it drew no sympathy from an Augusta County judge, only a reprimand.

A woman testified that he beat her early Sept. 17 demanding that she have sex with him. She acquiesced, showered and went to work battered and bruised, she said.

City police suspect a “very thin” woman has conned her way into three Waynesboro homes this month to steal medication, money and jewelry from elderly and disabled people..

Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 3, three similar thefts raised police suspicions, said Sgt. Kelly Walker. The crimes echo a broader trend of thieves and scammers targeting the elderly, authorities said.

Waynesboro police have arrested one of two men suspected of terrorizing and robbing a woman while wearing horror-movie masks.

The accomplice is next, authorities said.

Mom testifies during repeat offender’s trial

‘Scream’ mask conceals identity of 2 male crooks

Federal authorities have arrested a Waynesboro man, just one peg in an alleged meth ring that reached deep into the Shenandoah Valley and as far south as Mexico.

Deputies with the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office arrested Richard Allen Layman Jr., 30, just as five other Valley residents ran into similar law enforcement nets.

Staunton police are seeking information on burglaries at two Churchville Avenue businesses.