A 50-year-old sex offender is being held without bond after allegedly abducting a woman in Old Town and sodomizing her, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.
The victim told police from Inova Alexandria Hospital on Feb. 1 that she met the suspect on the evening of Jan. 29 while riding on the King Street Trolley. The victim told police that he told her about his prior military service and that they talked for several minutes before they decided to get coffee at Bob & Edith’s Diner (1743 King Street).
After midnight, the victim and the suspect walked out together, after which she told police that he grabbed her by the hair and told her to kiss him.
The victim said that the suspect tried to pull her pants down and forced her to perform oral sex on him, according to the search warrant affidavit. The victim told police that the suspect stopped her when he began suffering chest pains.
Police identified the suspect after looking at surveillance footage from the restaurant. They also found three days earlier, on Jan. 26, that he was taken to a local hospital “due to chest pain from consuming narcotics,” according to the search warrant affidavit.
Michael Kristopher Sheckles, of Newburg, Maryland, was arrested on Feb. 21. He is being held without bond and goes to court April 3 for abduction with intent to defile and sodomy.
Sheckles is a registered sex offender with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. While serving in the U.S. Air Force, he was convicted of sodomy and indecent assault in 2000 and misdemeanor sexual battery in 2007, according to FDLE.
A 30-year-old man is being held without bond for allegedly stealing juice drinks and assaulting an employee from a West End 7-Eleven.
On Feb. 7, the employee at the store at 6120 Lincolnia Road called 911 to report the incident, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit. The victim told police that the suspect walked into the store, took three-to-four juice bottles and then walked out without paying and sat across the street at a bus stop.
“The victim followed the unknown suspect outside the store to the bus stop across from the 7-Eleven,” police said in the search warrant affidavit. “The victim demanded the suspect return the merchandise. The suspect put the bottles down on a nearby parked vehicle. As the victim leaned forward to grab the bottles the suspect punched him several times in the face. The suspect then took the bottles and fled the scene.”
The victim sustained a broken nose, a hematoma on his forehead and lacerations near his left eye and nose, according to the search warrant affidavit.
Churchill Oluwole Hamid was arrested on Feb. 15 for the incident and is being held without bond. He was charged with malicious wounding and petit larceny and goes to court on April 3.
Alexandria resident Carrington Hammond, found guilty of multiple fentanyl and gun trafficking charges, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice.
Hammond was found guilty of selling fentanyl-laced pills that looked like oxycodone and selling firearms with the serial numbers filed off — aka a “ghost” gun.
According to a release:
Carrington Hammond, 29, worked with Arizona-based suppliers and local redistributors to sell kilogram-level quantities of fentanyl in the Eastern District of Virginia. Hammond’s co-conspirators mailed packages across the country to Hammond containing tens of thousands of counterfeit pills. The pills had the appearance of pharmaceutical oxycodone but instead were laced with fentanyl. Law enforcement identified one such package containing 50,000 fentanyl-laced pills. Hammond also trafficked fentanyl in powder form, as well as cocaine.
In addition to drug trafficking, Hammond sold multiple firearms during the conspiracy. Law enforcement recovered three firearms that Hammond sold to a local drug redistributor, including a “ghost” gun. A ghost gun is a firearm that is not marked with a serial number and is often made using a 3-D printer, so there is no way to track its origins or owners.
A release from the Department of Justice said police searched Hammond’s apartment on Aug. 10, 2023, and found:
- 5 kilograms of counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl
- 2 kilograms of fentanyl powder
- 1 kilogram of cocaine
- 2.5 kilograms of marijuana
- Two guns, one under a couch cushion and a semi-automatic kept next to a safe
Image via Google Maps
An Alexandria man is out on bond after allegedly assaulting a male neighbor and brandishing a handgun in the Braddock neighborhood of Alexandria.
The incident allegedly occurred at around 12:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 22 outside the suspect’s home in the 1200 block of Wythe Street. Perry Ellis Barmore, 33, was arrested after allegedly punching the victim in the face during a dispute and brandishing a handgun.
The victim was treated at the scene and was not seriously injured, according to the police scanner.
The area had multiple shots fired incidents in the past.
Barmore was arrested and charged with assault and battery and pointing/holding/brandishing a firearm, which are both Class 1 misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in prison and/or a $2,500 fine. He was released that same day on a $1,500 unsecured bond and goes to court on April 19.
Getting your criminal record expunged in Alexandria just got a lot easier.
Alexandria Sheriff Sean Casey, Clerk of Circuit Court Greg Parks, and Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter announced today that their offices have coordinated efforts to create a “one-stop, limited cost, process for all those seeking expungements of Alexandria court and police records.”
The expungement process can now be completed for free at the Alexandria Courthouse (520 King Street), and are granted when the petitioner was acquitted of an incident, the charge was not prosecuted or if the petitioner was granted an absolute pardon.
“I am committed to ensuring that all Alexandrians have fair access to the expungement process, and waiving the service of process and its fee will remove one barrier to those seeking to clear their records,” Porter said in a release.
Expungements are handled in the clerk’s office. When a record is expunged, the record is removed from public access and sealed for three years, after which it is destroyed.
“I am extremely pleased to have the support of Sheriff Casey and Commonwealth’s Attorney Porter in making the expungement process more convenient, and in limiting the out-of-pocket expenses for applicants,” Parks said.
As part of the agreement, the Sheriff’s Office will take fingerprints at the courthouse at no cost to the petitioner.
“Fingerprinting is critical to the expungement process, and the Sheriff’s Office will provide that service to Alexandrians at no cost to make the process easier and faster,” Casey said.
An expungement clinic was conducted last year, resulting in more than 30 criminal charges expunged. Another clinic is anticipated for “early this year,” according to the three offices.
Applicants can get assistance from the Alexandria Bar Association‘s lawyer referral service for $55.
A Pennsylvania man was arrested for his third driving while intoxicated offense in five years and driving on a suspended license after allegedly crashing his car into The Majestic Restaurant’s outdoor patio and a number of other cars in Old Town on Thursday, Dec. 28.
The incident at The Majestic occurred at around 1:30 a.m., and the 25-year-old suspect was later arrested at around 6:30 a.m. after allegedly crashing a 2002 Camry with temporary tags into two unoccupied parked vehicles near the intersection of Commerce and S. Payne Streets.
The damages are estimated at around $15,000, according to Scott Bogue, the restaurant’s manager.
“That includes propane tanks, heaters, crowd control barriers, planters, not to mention the time it too the gardener to buy the plants and plant them,” Bogue said. “He hit every single table, every single chair. You would have thought that an 18-wheeler plowed into the restaurant.”
Bogue said that police linked the suspect’s car by a portion of the front bumper that was left in front of the restaurant. Bogue said that Alexandria Restaurant Partners, which owns The Majestic, is not pressing charges and is getting compensated through the suspect’s insurance.
The suspect was charged with driving on a suspended license and for his third DWI in less than five years, which is a Class 6 felony punishable by up to a year in prison and/or a $2,500 fine. He was released on a $1,000 bond that afternoon and has his first court appearance on Friday, Jan. 5.
A 20-year-old Alexandria man was sentenced to 10 years in prison, all of them suspended, and five years probation today after the unintentional shooting and killing of his best friend in Lynhaven earlier this year.
Junior Josue Espinal Calix pleaded guilty last month to involuntary manslaughter for the shooting death of his best friend, 21-year-old Nabel Christopher Chavez. Alexandria Circuit Court Judge James C. Clark announced the sentence after a brief bench trial.
“I don’t think anybody questions the sincerity of your remorse or the sincerity of your intention to do better with your life,” Clark told Calix. “I think that it is impossible for the court to impose a sentence commensurate with the loss that Chris’ family has experienced and to a certain extent what you and your family have experienced.”
Calix admitted to killing Chavez in an interrogation video presented as evidence by his defense attorney, Sebastian Norton. In the video, Calix breaks down into sobs as he recounts the event in his home on E. Reed Avenue– drinking Jack Daniel’s whiskey, smoking marijuana and playing video games with Chavez. Then, as he did with regularity, Calix said, he took out his Polymer80 9mm pistol, which he thought was empty, pointed it at Chavez’s head and pulled the trigger.
Chavez died instantly and it was Calix who called 911.
Calix spent two weeks in jail after the shooting and was released on bond. He’s since been living substance-free, Norton said, and has gotten a job at a local pizzeria, where he works with the victim’s younger brother.
Calix apologized to the victim’s family and his family.
“I will never get another friend, another brother like him,” Calix told the court. “He was such a great person.”
Calix’s mother, Sonia, testified that her son and Chavez were like brothers.
“He’s changed a lot,” Sonia Caliz said. “He’s been working very hard and I haven’t had any problems since he got out (of jail).”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Harsh Vorganti said that the shooting was unintentional, not accidental. Vorganti is part of the Commonwealth Attorney’s property crimes unit, and generally tries cases involving white collar offenses and reviewing financial records.
“The defendant may not have intended to kill Nabel, but he did do so,” Vorganti said. “It was not an accident that he pointed a gun at Nabel’s head. It was not an accident that he pulled the trigger.”
Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter, however, noted the “accidental” nature of the incident in a release last month.
“Nabel suffered one gunshot wound to the right side of his face and was pronounced dead on the scene,” Porter said. “Evidence confirmed the accidental nature of the shooting.”
A 16-year-old Alexandria kid charged with allegedly shooting a man in September has been denied bond.
The suspect was charged in October with aggravated malicious wounding and two counts of robbery for the Sept. 22 incident in the 5500 block of Holmes Run Parkway. The shooting left a 21-year-old man paralyzed from a severed spinal cord after being shot in the neck, according to court records.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office said in court that police allegedly found a .22 caliber pistol and ammunition hidden in the suspect’s closet. They also said that the victim had been buying drugs when he was shot and that bullet fired at the victim is lodged in his neck and can’t be extricated.
Judge James C. Clark denied bond for the suspect and said that he is a danger to the community. Clark also accepted social media photos into evidence of the suspect holding multiple handguns.
“There seems to be a certain amount of pride that the suspect has by possessing guns, drugs and money,” Clark said. “He is absolutely a danger to the community.”
The shooting occurred at around 9:30 a.m. and the nearby Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School and William Ramsay Elementary School were both put in “secure the building” in response to the nearby police activity.
The incident is the first charge against the suspect in Alexandria. His next court appearance is on Jan. 4.
The deteriorating parking garage at the Albert V. Bryan United States Courthouse is about to get an $11.5 million upgrade.
The U.S. General Services Administration announced Monday that the courthouse parking garage, located at 401 Courthouse Square in the city’s Carlyle neighborhood, is one of 150 project around the country that will be repaired using “low-embodied carbon materials” via the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The courthouse repair will be made with carbon concrete.
“The judiciary depends on safe and easy access to the Albert V. Bryan Courthouse,” acting Mid-Atlantic Region Regional Administrator Joanna Rosato said. “These repairs will provide a safe and sustainable investment in the future of the Courthouse.”
According to GSA:
The Inflation Reduction Act includes $3.4 billion for GSA to influence market research and development of low-embodied carbon materials, and to build more sustainable and cost-efficient high-performance facilities. GSA’s Inflation Reduction Act projects will implement new technologies and accelerate GSA’s efforts in achieving a net-zero emissions federal building portfolio by 2045.
Through these investments, GSA estimates that it could reduce carbon emissions by 2.3 million metric tons in greenhouse gas emissions. That is the equivalent of taking about 500,000 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles off the road for one year.
GSA offered no timeline for the projects.
A 32-year-old man from the Groveton area of Fairfax County, just south of Alexandria, pleaded guilty yesterday to defrauding the government of more than $1.4 million in fraudulent pandemic-related PPP loans and unemployment benefits.
George Mensah, Jr., 32, admitted in federal court to wire and mail fraud by collecting fees with two unnamed conspirators through CashApp, Zelle and bank transfers, according to court records. The scheme ran from Oct. 2020 to Sept. 2021, during which time Mensah admitted to preparing dozens of fake PPP loans and unemployment insurance claims under the CARES Act.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia:
Mensah admitted that he and his coconspirators prepared and submitted over 47 applications for PPP loans for fake businesses. At least 21 of these applications were funded by lenders, which caused an actual loss of at least $583,172. In addition, Mensah admitted that he and his co-conspirators obtained the personally identifiable information of others, including identity theft victims, in order to make claims for pandemic unemployment benefits in Virginia and elsewhere. Mensah admitted that he and his co-conspirators obtained at least $658,952 in fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance and pandemic benefits.
Mensah admitted to committing the schemes from three locations — from an apartment in Springfield, an apartment in Tysons Corner and from his parent’s home in the Groveton neighborhood in Fairfax County.
“The defendant and his coconspirators created false tax returns, including Schedule C forms, and fake bank statements to accompany the fraudulent PPP loan applications,” according to court records.
Mensah admitted to collected fees through CashApp accounts and bank transfers, according to court records. Additionally, he admitted to receiving at least 20 Way2Go prepaid debit cards from the Virginia Employment Commission.
The maximum penalty for the offense is 30 years in prison, a $1 million fine, or twice the gross gain or loss, full restitution, forfeiture of assets and a maximum supervised release term of five years, according to court records. Mensah also agreed to pay the government back $1.5 million.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kimberly Shartar and Kathleen Robeson and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Ezra Spiro.
Mensah will be sentenced on Feb. 14.