Arraignment set for four Nov. 24
Contributed Report
A Culpeper grand jury, recalled at the request of Commonwealth Attorney Gary Close, returned indictments last Monday, Nov. 2, against four inmates at the Coffeewood Juvenile Correctional Center. All four are adults.
The indictments stem from a five-hour melee on October 18 in which four individuals took over a pod at the Correctional Center. During the incident furniture was broken and used as weapons to break glass and other property in the pod. One guard suffered a broken finger and another was kicked in the face during the takeover.
Terrence Henderson, Kevon Johnson, Wilbert Smith and Rajit Nash each face 11 charges to include malicious wounding by a mob, gang participation, and felony destruction of property. The total number of years in prison facing each defendant is 120, according to Close.
The Grand Jury heard testimony from one State Police Investigator. It remained in session for about two hours before returning the indictments. The four appeared first in court
Tuesday, November 10 at 9 a.m. According to David Barredo, Culpeper County's gang prosecutor who is assigned to the case, arraignment has been set for Tuesday, November 24, at 9 a.m. Three of the four were appointed counsel. An arraignment is a formal reading of the charges and the entry of a plea by the defendant. No trial date has been set.
The unusual move to directly indict the four during a special second session of the Grand Jury is part of a larger strategy implemented by the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors in 2007 when they hired Barredo as the county gang prosecutor.
“The Board drew a line in the sand with the creation of the gang prosecutor? in Culpeper County gangs are not welcome behind bars or not,” said Close.
The regular grand jury met on October 19 while the pod takeover was still under investigation. Rather than wait two months for the next grand jury, Close said he decided to recall the October grand jury.
The Culpeper Juvenile Correction Center only holds males ages 18 through 21 sentenced in Circuit Court. It takes inmates from across the commonwealth.
Culpeper Juvenile Correctional Center, with a budgeted capacity of 144, is located approximately five miles south of the town of Culpeper, and half a mile south of the town of Mitchells, in Virginia on Route 615. Culpeper Juvenile Correctional Center opened in March 1999. This facility, designed for maximum security, was the first juvenile justice facility to house both a correctional center and a detention center in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The Correctional Center currently houses the 18-20 year-old Circuit Court male offenders. The facility has a housing capacity of 250 single cells for the general population, 14 single cells for isolation/segregation, and 6 single cells in the infirmary