Twenty-three defendants in cases assigned to Judge Debra Scudiere following their indictments by the September 2019 term of the Monongalia County grand jury appeared in court pleaded not guilty on Thursday.
Nicholas Curtis, 27, was among them. The grand jury indicted him for first-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit a felony.
Curtis is accused of taking part in a robbery at the Morgantown Motel on June 26.
He was arrested June 26 in South Park by the Morgantown Police Department. The Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department responded to the robbery about 1 a.m. that morning and identified Curtis as a suspect following an investigation.
The robbery also involved a shooting in which a juvenile girl was grazed in the chest. She was taken to J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital for treatment of the non-life-threatening injury, Sheriff Perry Palmer said.
Janson A. Davenport, 21, of Greenville, N.C., was arrested with Curtis and charged for the shooting. He was found unresponsive in his jail cell on June 30 and declared dead later that day.
The case against Joseph Hailey III, 41, of Morgantown, is also assigned to Scudiere.
Hailey committed malicious assault by “intentionally, unlawfully, feloniously and maliciously wounding J.T.T., by repeatedly striking and kicking him,” his indictment said.
Hailey allegedly was seen on video attacking a man in the upper parking lot at Sheetz on University Avenue, according to a criminal complaint. Hailey ran up the stairs and knocked the victim down by hitting him in the face with his right fist. Hailey hit the victim two more times with his right fist and then kicked him twice.
The victim suffered a broken right forearm, the complaint said.
Christopher D. Grimes, 44, of Granville, was indicted for first-degree arson and felony destruction of property and also pleaded not guilty on Thursday.
Grimes allegedly set fireworks off inside his apartment on Brookhaven Road on July 1.
Brookhaven Volunteer Fire Department responded to the call and found Grimes partly unconscious and partly inside his refrigerator, according to a criminal complaint.
Scudiere issued warrants for the arrest of Kalina Gallagher and Rebecca Paugh, who did not show for their arraignments.
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