Ronald Wade Bentley, 38, of Chapmanville, was arrested in Logan County by Tpr. B.A. Lowe for being an accessory after the fact on Feb. 20. He was booked at the regional jail at 1:22 a. m. According to reports on Jan. 30, 2011 the WVSP was in the process of searching for Chad Williams following the shooting of Jason Horne earlier that evening, when Ronald Bentley allegedly presented himself to Tpr. J.R. Powers "as a witness to the events occurring after the shooting."
"During an interview with the defendant, the Defendant (Bentley) stated to Tpr. Powers that he had no knowledge of where the murder suspect, Chad Williams, was located."
However, after Williams was arrested by the WVSP, "Mr. Chad Williams stated ...that the defendant (Bentley) allowed Mr. Chad William to hide in the defendant's residence immediately after the shooting, while emergency responders were on scene." Throughout the next day police officers searched for Williams on foot and in the air via helicopters.
Ironically Williams, 35 of Chapmanville, himself was caught in the same house where the shooting occurred. Williams was found in the residence at Godby Heights where the shooting occurred, hiding out in the basement area.
Williams allegedly shot Horne in the head following a dispute, then fled around 2 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 30. Both men reportedly lived at the same residence.
Seven days later, police arrested Darren Keith Midkiff, 21, of Chapmanville, and charged him with being an accessory after the fact and obstructing an officer. Midkiff was accused also of lying to police about Williams whereabouts. Midkiff initially told one trooper that Williams had knocked on his bedroom window and informed him that he had just shot someone and needed a place to hide. Midkiff claimed he told Chad Williams that he didn't want to get involved, so Williams left and went to an abandoned house behind his.
When the officers searched the abandoned home they could not find Williams.
"Later on this same date, Tpr. B.A. Lowe and Tpr. J.R. Powers were approached by two individuals stating that they spoke to the defendant (Midkiff) around 4 a.m. on this same date, and that he stated he gave the murder suspect shoes and a blanket so he could go hide in the woods at a location that he would usually go to when the police were called on him.
The troopers reportedly found a cell phone in the woods that had been in the home where the murder occurred.
"Later on the same date, Tpr. J.K. Harris spoke with the defendant and obtained a hand written statement from him," the report adds. "In the statement, the defendant admitted he earlier lied to this officer about the whereabouts of the murder suspect. The defendant stated that he gave the murder suspect shoes and a blanket. The defendant also said that he never saw him go into the abandoned home."
The West Virginia State Police on Tuesday brought a manhunt to a quick end when the primary suspect in a daylight robbery attempt was arrested.
• Mont David Bryant, 32 of Logan, was arrested in Henlawson on Feb. 22 and charged with aggravated robbery by the West Virginia State Police. He was booked at the Southwestern Regional Jail at Holden at 5:40 p.m. The state police had been looking for Bryant and reportedly had a warrant for his arrest following a failed robbery attempt at a local tobacco store near West Logan.
"He was arrested yesterday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. Sgt. B.M. Brown of the West Virginia State Police Logan Detachment said this morning. "Senior Trooper E.B. McClung was in charge of the investigation on this case and he had received information about Mont Bryant's whereabouts and we went out there and got him."
Sgt. Brown told The Logan Banner that the crime appeared to have been unplanned and that it appeared that Bryant was unarmed when he tried to pull it off.
"It looked like a crime of opportunity," Sgt. Brown said.
According to witnesses Bryant was playing poker machines at the Tobacco and Lottery Express right outside city limits in West Logan around 9:15 a.m. when a vendor from Southern Amusements came in to service the machines and according to one witness he followed the vendor outside to the parking lot where he accosted the vendor unsuccessfully trying to rob him before fleeing empty handed in a gray Jeep. Moments later a Jeep automobile went blasting through the traffic lights by the Mountain Trail Inn followed by state police cruisers. Soon thereafter the vehicle was recovered in the Henlawson area, and Troopers were spread out on foot looking for the fleeing fugitive.
Bryant was reportedly identified in part due to good security camera footage.
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