PRINCETON —
First-degree murder, robbery, and attempt to escape charges were among the indictments handed down Thursday by the February session of the Mercer County Grand Jury.
Tevin Allen, 18, of Princeton was arrested in August 2011 and charged with first-degree murder in the death of his father, James Sanchez Scott, 35, of Princeton. Scott was shot at High Street in Princeton and later pronounced dead at Princeton Community Hospital. Allen was also indicted on the charge of delivery of a Schedule II controlled substance, cocaine.
The grand jury also handed down a first-degree murder charged against Marcus McKinley, 26, of Princeton. Bluefield police sought McKinley after Ayana Patton, 18, of Bluefield died as the result of a gunshot wound while at the Opera House Apartments in downtown Bluefield. McKinley left Mercer County and was later extradited from North Carolina.
An indictment was handled down in the case of Jessica Persianni Roberts, 31, of Crumpler. Roberts was indicted on charges of first-degree murder, robbery first degree, and conspiracy. Roberts was arrested in late August 2011 after a robbery at the Pop Shot convenience store near Bramwell with her husband, the late David Douglas Roberts, 41, of Crumpler.
David Roberts, who entered the store wearing a mask and armed with a shotgun, was shot by a Mercer County customer carrying an automatic pistol. The resident, who had a concealed weapons permit, was not charged. David Roberts died while en route to Bluefield Regional Medical Center. Jessica Roberts, who was allegedly waiting outside the store in a car, picked up some money her husband had dropped as he left the store and drove away.
A first-degree murder indictment was also handed down for Michael Greene, aka “Smoke,” 18, no address given. Greene’s case was recently transferred from juvenile to adult status, said Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ash. Greene was arrested in January 2010 after the shooting death of Clayton Dewey Mitchem, 45, of Bluefield at the Economy Inn off Cumberland Road in Bluefield.
The grand jury also indicted Terry Proffitt, 37, of Brushfork on multiple charges including attempt to disarm a law enforcement officer, malicious assault on a governmental representative and assault during commission of a felony attempt to escape. Proffitt was being loaded into a transport van Sept. 28, 2011 outside the Mercer County Courthouse Annex when he managed to get his cuffed hands loose from a “belly chain” that hinders movement and attempted to take a guard’s weapon. Chief Probation Officer Greg Arnold and a second inmate helped subdue Proffitt.
One suspect connected to several incidents in a string of armed robberies in Mercer County was also indicted. Eric James Ruble, 31, of Princeton was arrested in November 2011. Ruble allegedly robbed the S&S Express in Green Valley, the Kwik Stop Shell Station on New Hope Road three times, and the Midtown Texaco off Mercer Street in Princeton.
Local News
February 17, 2012
Mercer County Grand Jury: Murder indictments rendered
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