Superior Court session may include Edwards murder trial

Next week's session of Alleghany County Criminal Superior Court could include a murder trial.

The case of Dewey Franklin Edwards, who is charged with first degree murder in the Oct. 11, 2002 slaying of Walter Edward "Ed" Whitaker Jr., is on the trial schedule for the session which begins Aug. 11. Edwards was indicted in late March, during a previous session of superior court. The state could seek the death penalty for Edwards as, also in late March, Judge Douglas Albright ruled that his previous conviction for arson constituted an aggravating factor in the case.

According to court documents, Judge Russell Walker Jr. is scheduled to preside over next week's session. Prosecutors listed are District Attorney Tom E. Horner and assistant district attorneys Richard Lyle, Graham T. Green and Stacy Y. Adams.

The trial schedule also includes Donald Alfred Billings, who faces several charges of marijuana dealing; Franklin Garnett Hash, who was indicted last March for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and discharging a weapon in an occupied property; Angelo Nicholson on four charges each of forgery and uttering; and a number of cases appealed from district court.

Potential Indictments

Hash is also on the administrative calendar with 10 charges of embezzlement. The administrative calendar can include motions, pleas and the consideration of indictments by a grand jury.

Also on the administrative schedule are Jason Troy Crouse and Kevin Lewis Eldridge, who are each charged with several counts of breaking and entering and several larcenies; Jhonattan Lopez Maya, Manuel Rosa Maysonet and Luis Eduardo Parra, who are charged with attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon; Howard Jonathan Price on a charge of statutory rape; and Richard Edison Landreth, who faces a second degree sex offense charge.

There are two regularly scheduled sessions of criminal superior court in Alleghany each year, one in March and the other in August.

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