Suspect had two sides to persona

People familiar with Slade Woodson, the 19-year-old Afton resident arrested Friday for shooting two buildings in Waynesboro and six vehicles along Interstate 64, slightly wounding two people, describe an amiable young man whose actions have, on rare occasions, clashed horribly with his apparent personality.

Jill Tice, 43, whose house on North Commerce Avenue in Waynesboro was targeted along with the Dupont Community Credit Union on Lucy Lane, says her 17-year-old son, Scott, used to be one of Woodson's closest friends. The two went to high school together and Woodson was a frequent guest at their home. At one point, they even considered letting him move in — until Tice found a smuggled case of beer hidden in her son's closet on the first night of Woodson's stay.

"He lost his beer and he got evicted," she said, laughing.
But she still considered Woodson a "very pleasant, nice looking fellow," who was always welcome in their home. That changed in late 2006, when her son was questioned about two stolen trucks found burned in Albemarle County.

"Scott knew what had happened," Tice said. "He didn't want to tell on the boy, because he felt sorry for Slade, but then they [police] told him he could be charged as an accessory if he didn't talk."

Woodson was charged in January 2007 with two felony counts of auto theft and two felony counts of arson, but pleaded guilty to reduced charges and spent 6 months in jail. Shortly after his release, he started driving to Tice's house at odd hours of the night and staring ominously toward her son's second-story window, she said, or peeling around their block in reckless loops that left still-visible tire marks in the road. After one February incident, Waynesboro police arrested Woodson near Tice's house for driving under the influence.

But a few months ago, when she ran into Woodson in a grocery store, he acted normally, she said.

"He seems like a nice kid, very polite and all, but I guess once he gets some alcohol in him he's a different person," she said. "There's just something in that child's mind."

Norman Carter, 62, a photographer for The News Virginian, has known the Woodson family for 20 years and shared a neighborhood with them for the last eight or nine. His son recently married one of Slade Woodson's older sisters. His relationship with Woodson was always cordial, he said — until Woodson stole his truck, set it ablaze, and left it smoldering on a roadside.

"I was angry before I found out who it was, but after I found out who it was, I was also somewhat bewildered and dismayed, because I would have never suspected that of Slade," Carter said.

While out on bail, Woodson attempted make amends for his crime in a heartfelt note he left in Carter's mailbox.

"He apologized for what he had done, for the inconvenience that he had caused, and let me know that it was nothing personal, it was just something that had happened," Carter said.

Then, last year, when high winds blew a tree across the road in front of Carter's house, Woodson volunteered to clear it away.
"I could not have asked for better help under those circumstances," he said.

Carter said he had truly believed his young neighbor's reckless behavior was firmly in the past. His arrest Thursday came as an awful surprise.

"I'm shocked and dismayed, and again, not thinking that this particular individual — not the one that I know, and have known, and whose family I know and consider good, close friends and good neighbors — could have done this," he said.