An Afton man turned himself over to police today, after a pipe bomb hoax situation on Delphine Avenue led to a felony charge.

Authorities in early November rifled through two properties belonging to Mark S. Bales, 58, after the Waynesboro Police Department connected a suspicious package to him, according to a search warrant. Police closed the street Nov. 2 after finding the package.

n Authorities charged Kimberly Anne Knight, 45, and John Timothy Swearengin, 45, with trespassing after Staunton police found them in an abandoned house in the 300 block of Green Street. Authorities also charged Swearengin with two counts of defrauding an innkeeper and one count of obstruction of justice. Almost a month before his arrest, Swearengin ate a meal at the Mill Street Grill without paying, authorities said.

Judge hands down sentence for starvation, abuse

The man charged in Waynesboro’s largest mushroom bust pleaded guilty in circuit court Wednesday to possessing and distributing the psychedelic drug, which police found stored in more than 100 jars in his apartment.

A Waynesboro man cried for mercy in circuit court Wednesday after pleading guilty to robbing a gas station.

“I know what I pled guilty to doing wrong,” Kenneth Marsella Reynolds told Judge Humes J. Franklin Jr. “I’m an addict – I’m not here to make anyone mad, I just pray to God. Have a little mercy on me today. Your honor, I will never be in your courtroom again.”

Staunton police arrested Jeremy Kirk Pope, 29, of Staunton on charges he stole a television and printer from a city residence. Pope, described by authorities as one of their “Frequent Flyers,” has been arrested more than a dozen times in the past three years for various charges including: public intoxication, urinating in public and larceny. In March Pope pleaded guilty to charges of assault and batter and for assaulting a law enforcement officer

Both attorneys listened to the defendant and agreed. Krista Shay Chandler told her story and they believed her remorse. But consequences could not be ignored.

Chandler, 21, appeared before a Waynesboro Circuit Court judge Wednesday, ready to be sentenced for abusing her boyfriend’s toddler in April 2008.

More than 10 supporters attended her hearing, and uttered words of encouragement after Judge Humes J. Franklin Jr. sentenced Chandler to one year in prison and three years of supervised probation.

A Stuarts Draft man will serve three years’ probation for paying a teenage girl to perform oral sex on him as he videotaped the act.

Wayne Edward Gill, 39, pleaded guilty late Monday in a deal with Staunton prosecutors to avoid jail time. The court ordered Gill to register as a sex offender.

Gill paid a 17-year-old R.E. Lee High School student $300 to film her performing the act earlier this year in a Staunton auto body shop. The girl was seeking to pay drug debts, authorities have said.

A three-vehicle crash along U.S. 11 and Captain Hizer Lane stopped traffic Tuesday morning after a Fort Defiance High School student braked for a loose dog, authorities said.

Daniel Whitson, 29, of Grottoes, smashed his vehicle into the back of the student’s car, jack-knifing the trailer he was hauling into an oncoming vehicle.

Michael Mason killed his ex-girlfriend with a single gunshot fired at her head from close range.

John Franklin Myers shot his girlfriend in a gravel driveway outside the mobile home where they’d lived for seven tumultuous months.

STAUNTON — A former corrections officer pleaded guilty Monday to feeding a stream of marijuana to a drug-trafficking ring inside the Augusta County Correctional Center in Craigsville.

State authorities found black powder, grenades, guns and mortar rounds in an Afton man’s home after a scare on Delphine Avenue in Waynesboro, according to court records.

Authorities armed with search warrants rifled through two properties belonging to Mark S. Bales, 51, after the Waynesboro Police Department connected a suspicious drug package with a metal pipe sticking out of the side to him, according to a search warrant in Augusta County Circuit Court. Police closed the street Nov. 2 after finding the package.

STAUNTON – Buffie Sue Wells pleaded guilty in Augusta County Circuit Court Monday, to drug charges and charges she eluded police.

Authorities charged Wells, 39, of Stuarts Draft, in late September after she and her then-wanted husband, Andrew Ivan Wells, 32, fled from an Augusta County Sheriff’s Office deputy. The deputy saw Andrew Wells sitting in the front seat of a Chevrolet Camero and stopped to question him, said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Thomas Knoll Jr. Monday.

A Waynesboro grand jury indicted two men Monday, for charges they used a handgun during a robbery in September.

Authorities charged Jeremy Lamont Brown, 24, of Lyndhurst, and Daryl Shondell Washington, 35, of Waynesboro, on charges they robbed two other men in the 7-Eleven parking lot, police said.

Fraud artist went on lam as wife, son faced charges, trial

Deputies have arrested a Waynesboro man on charges he clubbed an Eastside Speedway security guard with a metal pipe.

One of two Staunton men accused of killing a former roommate pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder.

A Staunton teen stole a car to use credit cards he’d stolen from the owner, then found her waiting when he tried to return the vehicle, authorities said.

Augusta County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Bryan Layne, 19, Wednesday. Authorities said they suspect more people are connected to the crime.

Virginia-born psychiatrist opens fire on army base

STAUNTON — Authorities have charged a former county prison guard with bribery as part of a ring they say delivered drugs to inmates.

For months April M. Hogsett, 26, of Doe Hill, used her position at the Augusta County Correctional Center to work as a liaison between prisoners and an outside drug source, according to court records.

Only weeks after their relationship skidded into trouble, a Staunton pair pleaded guilty Wednesday to injuring their infant child.

Richard Lee Steppe, 30, and Patience Dannielle Armentrout, 19, appeared before a Waynesboro Circuit Court judge to admit to felony child abuse of their 2-month-old baby.

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.