BUCKHANNON – An Upshur County man was arrested Friday in connection to a stabbing that allegedly occurred Monday, Nov. 16 on the Buckhannon Academy Elementary School basketball court.
Robert D. Williams, 50, of Buckhannon, was charged with one count of gross child neglect risking bodily injury and one count of being a principal in the second degree and accessory before and after the fact to malicious wounding, both felonies.
According to the criminal complaint filed by investigating officer Patrolman Angel McCauley with the Buckhannon Police Department, on Monday, Nov. 16 just before 4 p.m. Williams allegedly took his 16-year-old son to the BAES basketball court to “confront” another teenager, a 15-year-old.
The file says once the 15-year-old arrived at the basketball court, Williams was allegedly seen on security camera footage approaching a group of juveniles.
According to the report, an altercation between Williams’s 16-year-old son and the 15-year-old reportedly became physical, and the 15-year-old “was stabbed three times and slashed once,” the file says.
“In a cell phone recording of the fight, Robert is heard yelling ‘put it in him’ several times as [the victim] is being stabbed,” McCauley wrote in the report.
According to several witnesses on scene, all parties involved knew about the knife due to the 16-year-old waving it in the air before asking the 15-year-old to fight, the file says.
Bail was set at $60,000 cash or surety, and as of 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 23, Williams was no longer listed on the West Virginia Regional Jail Authority’s website.
Although Williams, the father of the juvenile who allegedly stabbed and slashed the other teenager, has been charged, his son has not yet been charged, Lt. Doug Loudin told My Buckhannon Monday afternoon.
“The juvenile has not yet been charged with anything – it’s in the prosecuting attorney’s hands,” Loudin said. “We’ve completed our investigation.”
When asked if the 16-year-old might be charged as an adult, Loudin said that determination was one for Upshur County Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Hinkle’s office to make. The basketball hoops remain down on the BAES court to prevent teens congregating and similar incidents from occurring, Loudin said.
The 15-year-old who suffered stab wounds was treated and released from the hospital the evening of the incident, Loudin confirmed. Read the original story here.
Loudin said being a ‘principal in the second degree’ to an alleged malicious wounding means the individual had “more involvement than simply being present, but did not actually carry [the act] out.”
Upshur County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Sara Lewis Stankus confirmed no students who attend BAES were involved or witnessed the Nov. 16 incident.
Regarding William’s charges, the potential penalty for a conviction of gross child neglect risking bodily harm is confinement in a state correctional facility for not less than two nor more than 10 years.
Meanwhile, the potential penalty for being a principal in the second degree and accessory before and after the fact in malicious wounding is a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $3,000 or confinement in a state correctional facility for not less than one nor more than five years, or both.
