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By the time the multiple jurisdictions in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina sort out the various charges against Floyd Countian Steven Dale Branscome (right), the 32-year-old man will probably spent what's left of his life behind bars.

At a hearing Friday in Princeton, West Virginia, a judge certified Branscome case to a grand jury on charges of malicious wounding, wanton endangerment and burglary. Other charges are pending in Virginia and North Carolina.

It will be a sad but fitting ending for the grandson of a popular former sheriff of Floyd County and the object of a manhunt that turned the county into an armed camp for a week while hundreds of cops from multiple jurisdictions manned road blocks, cruised the roads in an armored vehicle and searched the countryside for a fugitive who was long gone by midweek and headed for Mexico.

Branscome is charged with shooting a Virginia State Trooper after a chase ended in West Virginia. When you shoot a cop, the gloves come off and the normal rules don't apply. Law enforcement from around the state swarmed into Floyd County after a Sheriff's investigator spotted Branscome in Indian Valley. The weeklong chase ended in a motel near Texarkana when Texas Rangers and Federal Marshals cornered the fugitive.

West Virginia officials originally charged Branscome with malicious wounding of a police officers but his lawyers found loophole that said such a charge must involve a "West Virginia" cop so the judge reduced the charge to just malicious wounding. But a grand jury could still decide to reinstate the original charge.

Floyd County Supervisors have asked Sheriff Shannon Zeman for an accounting of what the massive manhunt cost local government. Zeman's preliminary report said the State Police will pay most of the cost and more information is expected when Supervisors meet next week.

Writes Shawna Morrison in The Roanoke Times:

Officials have said Branscome will likely be charged in Virginia with grand larceny and other crimes and in North Carolina with charges related to two stolen vehicles.

He is being tried first in West Virginia where he faces the more serious charges.

Before Hughes' shooting, Branscome was already wanted on several outstanding warrants in Virginia.

In Wythe County, he was wanted in connection with burglaries and thefts at a home and business.

He was wanted in Pulaski County on a charge of communicating threats to kill. And in Floyd County he was wanted on a probation violation.

Tim Jackson pulled the plug last week -- at least for the time being -- on the print edition of The New River Voice.

Launched eight months ago with a lot of hope, NRV worked to provide a regional paper that combined news, social commentary and entertainment reporting. Built on the "give the paper away free and support the whole thing with ads" model that made City Paper founder Russ Smith a millionaire in the Washington and Baltimore markets, NRV attracted about 15,000 readers to the print edition but not enough advertisers to pay the bills, much less give Jackson and his partner a living.

He gave us a heads up a few weeks ago, saying two more editions would be printed before shutting down that part of the operation. Tim hoped for a last-minute bailout and perhaps a buyer.

Didn't happen. In Friday's edition, Tim wrote:

When we began this publication eight months ago, I was wide-eyed and optimistic with a desire to lead the charge for progressive thought in the New River Valley. I thought the best way to do this was to print a free publication that would be distributed to thousands of people across the valley. And that’s exactly what we did. Our readership is somewhere around the 15,000 mark for our print publication and I would like to thank all who have ever picked up a copy of the Voice. And I know that’s a lot of you.

But in a sluggish economy and with essentially no advertising sales representatives to speak of, it just doesn’t make financial sense to continue publishing a print version. I appreciate the advertisers we have had, and I hope you will continue to support us. The fact is, however, that we’ve lost money on almost every issue of the New River Voice. And we’re not some huge corporation. We’re just a couple poor working folks trying to make a difference. In fact, my accountant is chagrined that we kept it going this long.

But we’re not finished yet. Our print product is going away—at least for now. If we can line up sufficient support and sign up advertisers to some long-term contracts, we might be back in print. But for now, we want you to continue keeping up with the progressive news and views and the best reviews that the NRV has to offer—online.

As Tim said, NRV will continue online and may return one day as a print publication. We hope it does. The Voice deserved a better fate. (Cover illustration courtesy of The New River Voice)

Earth Day festivities at Floyd County High School Saturday. Doors open at 9 a.m. and Fred First kicks things off at 9:30 with one of his slide presentations.

Demonstrations and vendors and coffee and snacks (we're checking to make sure the coffee cups and all the snack wrappers are bio-degradable).

See you there.

One of the Floyd County Sheriff's Department investigators who worked closely with the Virginia State Police tactical teams said today that the three fatigue-clad state troopers I overheard bragging about scaring county residents and referring to local police officers as "Barney Fifes" were not members of the tactical teams.

All state troopers assigned to Floyd County during the weeklong search for Steven Dale Branscome, accused of shooting at Virginia State Trooper after a chase that ended in West Virginia, wore fatigues but not all were members of the force's tactical teams.

I have confirmed that the three officers I overheard were not members of the tactical teams.

My apologies to the tactical teams for incorrectly identifying the officers as members of their units.  I'm glad to hear they were more professional than the officers I encountered on that day in the Blue Ridge Resturant.

Steven Dale Branscome (right), wanted for shooting a Virignia State Trooper, has been captured in Texas -- hundreds of miles away from the most intensive manhunt in the history of Floyd County.

His capture brings to an end a weeklong saga of roadblocks, house-to-house searches and stories of local residents terrorized by some Virginia State Police tactical team members wearing fatiques and carrying automatic weapons.  At one point, close to 400 police officers from 16 different agencies were deployed in Floyd County in a search for a fugitive who, as it turns out, was long gone.

UPDATE: Virginia State Police released the following statement at a press conference this afternoon at the Floyd County Courthouse:

The multi-agency, multi-state search for a Southwest Virginia man accused of shooting a Virginia State Police trooper March 28, 2008, is over. Steven Dale Branscome, 32, was apprehended Sunday morning (April 6, 2008) following a brief standoff at a Texas hotel.

A U.S. Marshal’s Service SWAT Team took Branscome into custody at approximately 12:40 a.m., central time, at a hotel in New Boston, Texas. Through the use of advanced tracking methods, investigators were able to locate Branscome in the New Boston area. As the SWAT Team made entry, Branscome at first refused to cooperate and then surrendered without incident a short time later. Branscome is being held at the Bowie County, Texas Jail pending extradition.

A 1999 Chevrolet passenger van stolen from a Statesville, N.C., church on Wednesday (April 2, 2008) was also recovered in the hotel parking lot. New Boston is located in northeast Texas near the city of Texarkana.

“This is the safe resolution that we were hoping for,” said Colonel W. Steven Flaherty, Virginia State Police Superintendent. “By increasing police presence in the Floyd County area, we were able to force Branscome out into the open and away from the support network that enabled him to elude investigators for the past week.”

“The Virginia State Police wish to express our sincere appreciation to those citizens in Floyd County who provided us with assistance and information during the course of the investigation. We are also most grateful to the U.S. Marshal’s Service, Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, West Virginia State Police and the multitude of local police and deputy sheriffs that aided us in this extensive search and investigation,” continued Col. Flaherty.

Branscome will face numerous charges in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, including grand larceny for at least four auto thefts. In West Virginia, Branscome already faces charges of malicious wounding and wanton endangerment in relation to the shooting of a Virginia State Police Trooper.

Police have been searching for Branscome since the Virginia State Police trooper was shot Friday afternoon (March 28, 2008) just inside West Virginia, across from the Giles County, Va. line. Trooper R.W. Hughes was shot in the neck while pursuing Branscome on foot following a short vehicle pursuit near the Glen Lyn community in Giles County. The trooper was not seriously injured and has returned to work.

Steven Dale Branscome is still on the lam and the imported posse of Virginia State Troopers and 15 other police agencies still can't find him.  They are looking for a flatbed truck that has been missing from Indian Valley since the weekend, which means he might be several states away by now (although the local pool is that he is hiding with relatives somewhere in the county).
Stay tuned.

It's the ultimate in overkill, a fully-amorered vehiche with portholes in the side so State Troopers can shoot from the protection inside and a gun emplacement on top that looks like something out of Star Wars.  It's a Virginia State Trooper tactical team personnel vehicle and the Old Dominion's finest have deployed it on the roads of Floyd County to hunt down Southwest Virginia's most-wanted: Steven Dale Branscome.

Branscome was still at large as darkness fell Wednesday night and, if he is not found, the 16 police agengies that have invaded the county expect to have 400 armed and ready officers on the ground.

Some of those who man the armored car have a swagger and attitude to match. Cops call it the John Wayne Syndrome. Thankfully, you don't see that kind of swagger in Floyd County deputies or even most of the State Troopers assigned to our area but it is alive and well on the tactical unit members transported into the area. Floyd County deputies still believe their role is "to protect and to serve." Some of the more aggressive members of the State tactical team members act like their motto is "search and destroy."

When one saw me taking pictures of their toy, he demanded to know what I was doing (which should have been obvious), then wanted to know my intentions and my identification.

His approach brought back memories of an encounter last summer with a member of the Parkway's Criminal Interdiction Team (CIT). My response:

I'm a resident of this county standing in a public parking lot taking pictures of a vehicle bought with public tax money. Any other information is none of your business.

The last time I checked, the Constitution and the rights it protects, still exists.