WV KNIFE AND GUN CLUB - Alleged Murderer Found In Lewis Wetzel Cave, Stupid Crook Makes National News

(03/09/2009)
SHOOTER FOUND ASLEEP IN CAVE - Wetzel County resident Robert Maine, Jr., age 30, was arrested in the historical Lewis Wetzel cave in Wheeling after allegedly shooting to death his cousin in New Martinsville.

He is being charged with murdering Gregory Maine Jr., 30, after an argument around 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Gregory Maine was taken to Ruby Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

STUPID WV CROOK MAKES NATIONAL NEWS - Police used bank records to track down a suspect who used a debit card to buy a soft drink in a Charleston convenience store after he held-up the place.

Shawn Thomas Lester, 33, of Charleston, held-up the store last week, telling staff he had a gun, according to the criminal complaint.

Lester apparently got flustered with his hold-up efforts when another customer entered the store.

The manager told Lester to pay for a drink he had in his hand, after which Lester handed the clerk his debit card, signing the receipt "John Doe." He then left.

Lester is now charged with armed robbery, telling police it was only a joke that he had a gun.

BABY ALONG IN STRING OF KANAWHA ROBBERIES - Kanawha County authorities stopped a pair of suspected robbers with incriminating evidence in their car and a baby in the back seat of their vehicle.

Sarah Halstead, 34, and her boyfriend, 38-year-old Thomas Eugene Stevens III, both of Dunbar, are now in jail, charged for what police believe is a string of convenience store robberies in the Kanawha Valley.

Three 7-Eleven stores were robbed on Tuesday and Thursday by a knife-wielding man and woman.

Police are saying a 9-month-old baby was in the car at the time of one robbery.

HARTS HOLD-UP SUSPECT USES ATV - Police are searching for a man who robbed a Harts, Lincoln County pharmacy and fled on an his ATV.

The man, wearing camouflage clothing and a mask, robbed the Harts Pharmacy Thursday, allegedly with a shotgun and reportedly got away with 100 OxyContin pills.