An estimated 2,300 West Virginians are eligible for refunds in a multi-million dollar settlement with Western Union.

A news release from West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office Tuesday said that West Virginia residents are eligible to be reimbursed for $2.9 million of a $591 million settlement between Western Union and 49 states and the District of Columbia.

The agreement resolves an investigation into using the wire transfer service for third-party scams, the release states.

Western Union must develop and implement a comprehensive anti-fraud program designed to help detect and prevent incidents where consumers who have been the victims of fraud, the settlement stipulates.

"I believe this will institute key safeguards, however it is no replacement for common sense and caution," the release states. "Consumers must carefully evaluate any which resolves a multistate investigation into using the wire transfer service for third-party scams."

Such scams involve "grandparent scams and tax scams," all of which the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division's Consumer Protection Division has been made aware of.

A man was hospitalized after deputies say he stabbed himself in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

It happened at about 9 p.m. Tuesday. Timothy Stephen Harris, who was arrested by Nitro police, was not able to pay the bail amount set Tuesday by Magistrate Tim Halloran, said Kanawha Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Brian Humphreys. Bail had been set at $5,000 property.

Harris then took a pen, which he'd used to sign his financial disclosure form, and tried to stab himself in the neck, Humphreys said. The wound "bled a little," Humphreys said.

Harris' injuries were not life threatening. He was taken by ambulance to an area hospital to be examined. Humphreys said Harris will be taken to jail once he is released from the hospital.

Harris also tried to harm himself in 2013 while in a holding cell, Humphreys said.

No one else was threatened or injured in the incident.

The Putnam County Sheriff's Department is searching for a man who cut off his home confinement bracelet Tuesday.

Patrick Phillip Setliff, 30, was last seen on Dale Road in Milton Tuesday night, according to the Putnam County Sheriff's Department. Deputies said he is likely traveling with his girlfriend, Erika Lynn Vaughn of Milton.

His home confinement was a condition of his bond to attend drug rehabilitation.

Setliff was originally indicted in Putnam County for fraudulent use of an access device. New felony charges are expected to be filed Wednesday.

Anyone with information on Setliff or Vaughn's location is encouraged to contact the Putnam County Sheriff's Department at 304-586-0256.

An elderly man charged with first-degree murder in his daughter's shooting death last year was found incompetent to stand trial by a Kanawha County judge this week.

William Jack Stuck, 92, was ordered by Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King on Monday to spend 90 days in a behavioral health facility to see if his competency can be restored, according to court documents.

Stuck is accused of shooting his daughter, Sandra Nichols, 68, on Oct. 6, 2016.

Later that month, prosecutors and defense lawyers filed a joint motion asking that Stuck be evaluated to determine competency or criminal responsibility, according to court documents. Psychologist Timothy Saar conducted the examination. Stuck is being represented by the Kanawha Public Defender's Office,

Stuck appeared in King's courtroom on Monday. He was to be sent for 90 days to the William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital in Weston, which is operated by the state Department of Health and Human Resources.

Stuck was charged with first-degree murder after being released from a Charleston hospital, where he was treated for a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

According to Kanawha sheriff's deputies, Stuck called 911 on the morning of Oct. 6 and reported he had shot Nichols.

When deputies responded to Stuck's home at 2605 Larwood Drive in the Mink Shoals area, they found Nichols shot to death in the kitchen. Stuck was in the basement with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the upper body, Capt. Greg Young previously said.

Neighbors, at the time of the incident, said that Nichols lived near her father and had been staying with him and taking care of him as his health declined.

Four men invaded the home of an 84-year-old woman and robbed her early this morning, police say.

The men, who were armed and wore masks, entered the home on Delaware Avenue shortly after midnight, according to Sgt. J.A. Hunt of the Charleston Police Department.

The woman received minor injuries when one of the men shoved her over a chair. She was home alone at the time.

Police did not say what items were stolen. They had not arrested anyone as of noon Wednesday.

Police say a teenage boy and another person stole laptops and iPads from Gatewood Elementary School in Fayette County early Tuesday.

Police responded at about 7 a.m. Tuesday to a call about a break-in at the school, according to a news release from the Fayette County Sheriff's Office.

Surveillance footage showed that a male and female, both wearing hooded sweatshirts, stole six laptops and three iPad minis at about 4:30 a.m.

Deputies used a police dog, Pappy, to find the teenage boy at his home about half a mile away. Police, who have not released the boy's name because of his age, said this morning they were filing a juvenile petition.

The female suspect has not been caught.

FAYETTEVILLE -- A hearing in Fayette County on a murder indictment that could be dismissed was postponed Thursday because of a death in a prosecutor's family.

A lawyer for Clint Toney, who is accused of a gruesome murder, wants a judge to dismiss the indictment. In 2015, Toney was indicted for the 1999 murder of Jonathan Skaggs, whose dismembered body was found in an outdoor fire pit next to the house where Toney lived at the time.

In his motion to dismiss, Public Defender Scott Stanton argued that prosecutors have harmed Toney's chance to get a fair trial. Many potential witnesses have died during the nearly 18 years since the homicide. Stanton wrote that the case has garnered "almost legendary status," but it also suffers from "negligence of a staggering degree."

Fayette County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Harrah has said he will oppose Stanton's motion to dismiss the indictment.

An assistant to Fayette Circuit Judge John Hatcher said a member of the Fayette County prosecutor's office suffered a death in the family, so the motions hearing was postponed until Feb. 17.

One of the defendants in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the city of Charleston was dismissed in Kanawha County Circuit Court on Thursday morning.

In the first court hearing since Charleston filed an antitrust lawsuit against West Virginia Paving and at least seven other asphalt and paving companies in October, attorney Michael Farrell, representing defendant Kelly Paving, argued before Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Tod Kaufman that his client should be dismissed from the city's lawsuit because it was never contracted to do asphalt projects in Charleston.

Farrell filed motions to dismiss the city's complaint naming Kelly Paving as a defendant, as well as in similar suits filed by Beckley, Bluefield, Huntington and the Kanawha County Commission.

"There has to be a causal connection between my client and the city of Charleston," Farrell said.

Farrell said because of the physical properties of asphalt, which is transported to project sites in liquid form, it would have been impossible for Kelly Paving to have done paving projects in Charleston and the other cities.

"It's beyond the range of the trucks we would hire to carry our materials, therefore we chose not to come," Farrell said, showing Kaufman a map of West Virginia that detailed the geographic area where Kelly Paving does business, which is mostly limited to the northern part of the state.

Kelly Paving has asphalt plants in St. Marys, Parkersburg, Benwood and Weirton, Farrell said.

Its parent company is Zanesville, Ohio-based Shelly & Sands, Inc.

The only complaint Kelly Paving answered without a motion to dismiss was that filed by the city of Parkersburg, which mirrors the allegations in the other complaints.

Farrell also denied allegations in the complaints that Kelly Paving conspired with the other defendants to illegally fix the price of asphalt in West Virginia by entering into a joint venture with West Virginia Paving to form Camden Materials, another defendant.

"For a conspiracy, you have to have an underlying cause of action," Farrell said.

Referring to the state's Antitrust Act, Farrell said, "where in this statute is there a proposition that if you do no business, that you can be held to respond and participate in a case like this, by merely alleging they were there?"

He argued that for the plaintiffs to argue Kelly Paving participated in monopolistic practices, they must demonstrate Kelly Paving was physically capable to do so, given the limitations in transporting liquid asphalt.

Mike Hissam of Bailey & Glasser LLP, which is representing all the involved municipalities, argued that it's not up to the court to determine the factual merits of the complaints during a hearing to dismiss.

Hissam said the Antitrust Act does apply to Kelly Paving, referring to a provision that states it is unlawful for a contract between two or more entities to have the effect of "fixing, controlling or maintaining the market price, rate or fee of the commodity or service."

"[Farrell's] argument is boiled down in essence to, unless you're a vendor to a municipality, you cannot be a defendant in an antitrust case," Hissam contended. "That language is found nowhere in the Antitrust statute."

While Kaufman approved Farrell's motion to dismiss Kelly Paving from the Charleston suit, he didn't make a decision on another motion made by Hissam to transfer and consolidate the six lawsuits, filed by Charleston, the Kanawha County Commission, Parkersburg, Beckley, Bluefield and Huntington, to Kanawha County Circuit Court.

Hissam said for the sake of efficiency, it's appropriate to consolidate the cases to the circuit court where the first complaint was filed, by the city of Charleston.

"If there's a discovery dispute, there's potential for six different discoveries, six motion to compel hearings, six different depositions of the same witnesses, over and over in different actions," Hissam said.

Attorney Booth Goodwin, representing defendants West Virginia Paving, Southern West Virginia Paving, Southern West Virginia Asphalt and Camden Materials, spoke in opposition to consolidating the cases at this point.

"We're simply saying that these complaints are not substantively identical, because the court has recognized ruling on a motion to dismiss today," Goodwin said. "There are different plaintiffs [and] different markets at issue. So necessarily, these don't arise from the same transaction or occurrence."

Attorney Charles Johnstone, representing American Asphalt and Aggregate and Blacktop Industries and Equipment Company, also opposed the motion to consolidate.

Similar hearings to consider Kelly Paving's motion to dismiss are scheduled in their respective circuit courts next week.

Thursday's hearing did not involve a similar antitrust lawsuit filed in January by Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office on behalf of the Division of Highways. Morrisey's office issued a request for proposals for an outside firm to represent the Division of Highways. Bailey and Glasser submitted a bid for the case, but Morrisey's office hadn't awarded the case as of Thursday afternoon.

Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.

A senator from Logan County said this week that he feels better that a Kanawha County judge has been appointed to preside over the trial of the man accused of attacking him at a political cookout last year.

After both of Logan County's circuit judges recused themselves from the case last month, the West Virginia Supreme Court appointed Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom to hear the case of Jonathan Porter, 42, of Holden.

Porter is charged with malicious assault in an attack last May on Sen. Richard Ojeda, D-Logan.

Ojeda was attacked last year in the days before he defeated the incumbent senator, Art Kirkendoll, in one of the biggest political upsets in Logan County history.

Ojeda has said Porter hit him from behind with a pipe and brass knuckles and then tried to run him over with a pickup.

"This man almost killed me," Ojeda said Tuesday. "I'm not going to let him get away with this."

Ojeda admitted, though, that he's scared he won't be able to find justice in Logan County.

It wasn't until last month, after a television news station reported on the case, that Logan Circuit Judge Eric O'Briant stepped down from Porter's case, Ojeda said.

The senator wanted O'Briant off the case because he plans to sue the judge's daughter. Ojeda has already filed a complaint with the state Office of Disciplinary Counsel against O'Briant's daughter, Shayna Thompson.

Ojeda alleges that while Thompson was a lawyer for the Logan County Board of Education, she released copies of his taxes to people who were campaigning against him. Thompson now works as an assistant Logan County prosecutor.

Logan Prosecuting Attorney John Bennett told the Gazette-Mail on Thursday that Thompson has had no involvement in the case his office is bringing against Porter. O'Briant couldn't be reached to comment about Ojeda's claims.

Ojeda also has raised concerns about O'Briant's close relationship with Porter's uncle, former Logan County circuit clerk Alvis Porter.

"Everyone knows they are friends. They worked together [in the Logan courthouse] for years," Ojeda said.

After O'Briant recused himself from Porter's case, Logan County's other circuit judge, Joshua Butcher wrote to the Supreme Court that he also needed to step away from the case.

"The facts of this case, as I understand them, are deeply intertwined with the recent and hotly contested litigation surrounding my own election," Butcher wrote to justices. "Specifically, my predecessor Judge Douglas Witten challenged my election, in part, on the grounds that misinformation surrounding Mr. Porter's alleged assault on Senator Ojeda unfairly prejudiced the electorate and rendered my election invalid."

Even though Witten eventually dropped his claims involving Ojeda, Butcher wrote that while he prepared to defend his election, he had "substantial contact with Senator Ojeda" and publicly asserted that the allegations against Porter were true.

Bloom this week pushed back the start of Porter's trial to March. The Kanawha judge also left Porter's bail in place. He's been on home confinement since last year.

A domestic assault charge against Porter in 2002 was dismissed, according to Logan County court documents. O'Briant served as the judge in that case.

Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.

After a nearly two-week trial, Kanawha County jurors on Thursday ruled in favor of Subaru.

The verdict marks the end of a nearly five-year lawsuit that stemmed from a Cabell County car wreck, which took the lives of a mother and two teenagers.

Claims made against Subaru were all that remained from combined lawsuits filed in 2011 by the families of Carole Lynn Crawford, Meaghan McGuire Crawford and Kelsey Rebecca Kuhn. The three were killed in a head-on collision on W.Va. 10 between Huntington and Barboursville in 2009.

The product liability claims against the car manufacturer alleged that the construction of the Crawfords' Subaru Forester - which burst into flames as bystanders tried to free the Forester's occupants - contributed to the deaths. Kanahwa jurors disregarded those allegations.

During the trial, the front end of a Forester was on display for jurors in Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey's courtroom. Subaru was represented by the law firm Spencer Shuford, of Richmond, Virginia. Charleston lawyer Scott Segal represented the plaintiffs.

On April 2, 2009, a Ford Explorer, driven by Erma Marie Brown, crossed the center line and hit the Subaru, driven by Carole Crawford, head-on. Crawford, 47, her daughter Meaghan, 16, and Meaghan's friend Kelsey, 15, were killed in the wreck and subsequent fire.

More than three months after a tenative settlement was announced, lawyers are still trying to work out detailed documents to spell out the terms of a $151 million deal resolving the class-action lawsuit over the January 2014 Kanawha Valley water crisis.

Lawyers for area residents and businesses, West Virginia American Water Co., and Eastman Chemical met for nearly two hours on Tuesday with U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver "to discuss the progress of finalization of the settlement agreement," according to an entry in the court docket that offered no other details of the closed-door conference.

In a one-page order made public Thursday, Copenhaver pushed the trial date in the case back from Feb. 7 to March 21. The move is mostly a formality, because no trial is really planned in the case, unless the settlement were to fall apart, and there has been no indication that is likely to happen.

Tentative settlements were reached in late October between the lawyers for hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses and attorneys for West Virginia American Water and Eastman Chemical.

Under the deals, West Virginia American would pay up to $126 million and Eastman up to $25 million to residents, businesses, and workers who were unable to use their tap water during the "do not use" order period that followed the contamination of the region's Elk River water supply by a spill of MCHM and other chemicals from the Freedom Industries facility just 1.5 miles upstream from the water company intake.

Lawyers are now trying to work out the exact language of longer and more detailed settlement documents that must be submitted to Copenhaver for his review and approval and for a public review period that allows members of the plaintiff class to object or opt-out of the deal. More information about how residents and businesses can file claims for compensation will be made public once those formal settlement documents are publicly filed with the court.

Since the tenative settlement was announced, Copenhaver has held at least 10 closed-door meetings with lawyers in the case to discuss the exact language of the settlment documents those lawyers are trying to finalize. Notations listing those meetings are included in the court calendar, and the court docket lists who attended the meetings and how long they lasted, but little other information has been made public about what's occurred during those discussions.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1702 or follow @kenwardjr on Twitter.

CENTERVILLE, Ohio (AP) - Police in Ohio say a 15-year-old boy wounded by officers after he refused repeated commands to put down his weapon had pointed a real-looking replica handgun at an officer.

Centerville Police Chief Bruce Robertson on Friday displayed a photo, saying "you can't tell that's a replica handgun." Two officers fired Thursday at the teenager, hitting him three times. Police say the wounds aren't life-threatening.

Robertson said police had earlier contact with the boy, who lives in Centerville some 20 miles south of Dayton.

He said surveillance video shows the boy was inside the police department before the encounter outside when an officer spotted him crouching behind a bush. Police say the youth drew the apparent weapon from his waistband and pointed it at the officer.

No one else was injured.

A 44-year-old Nicholas County man was accused this week in federal court of attempting to engage in sexual activity with a fictitious 13-year-old girl.

John Marshall Underwood Jr. was arrested Thursday and charged with the "attempted use of facility of interstate commerce to entice a minor to engage in commercial sex or criminal sexual activity."

Police received a tip in December about a man named John soliciting prostitutes so they could arrange for him to engage in sexual activity with minors, Charleston Police Detective Brandon Burton wrote in a criminal complaint. The informant later identified Underwood from a photo.

A police officer called Underwood on Dec. 14 and pretended to be a 32-year-old prostitute named Jenn, the criminal complaint states. She said she had custody of her two nieces, 16-year-old Emma and 13-year-old Abby.

Underwood and the undercover officer started out talking about his interest in younger girls, according to the charge against him. Underwood allegedly asked about the 13-year-old's sexual history.

Underwood continued for about a week talking on the phone and texting the undercover officer, according to Burton. Several times during their conversations, Underwood would ask for photographs of the girl, according to the charge against him.

The undercover officer sent Underwood a photo on Dec. 23, 2016 and told him it was her 13-year-old niece. The photo was actually of an undercover officer who was dressed to look like a teenager.

During several phone calls, Underwood allegedly asked if Jenn had talked with her youngest niece about meeting him. Underwood, police wrote, implied he would provide money or other items to Jenn and Abby in exchange for engaging in sexual activity with the 13-year-old. Underwood also allegedly asked the officer if she could find more girls in case he wanted to have sex with more than one girl. He allegedly also sent a picture of his penis to the undercover officer.

A preliminary hearing is set for Tuesday in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Dwane Tinsley. Underwood is being held in the custody of U.S. Marshals in the South Central Regional Jail.

Even if construction on the new bridge to Crossings Mall began today, the shopping center's biggest creditor says it wouldn't be fully operational until August at the earliest.

After the owner of Crossings Mall, Tara Retail Group, filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 24, its lender filed an emergency motion for relief from the automatic stay on Thursday.

The motion came after the initial bankruptcy filing halted efforts to construct a new bridge to Crossings Mall.

If granted, the motion for relief will allow work on the new bridge to begin as the bankruptcy proceedings are under way.

The culvert and only access point to the mall was washed out in the June floods last year, with roughly 500 people still out of work.

Martin Perry, who was appointed as receiver of the property in December, is working to restore tenant relations and leading the process to hire a contractor to build the bridge.

In an affidavit Perry filed last week in the bankruptcy case, he said a request for proposals was issued and received five bids from contractors ranging from roughly $900,000 to $1.4 million.

"The selected contractor proposed a contract price of approximately $1.1 million including engineering and project management fees," the affidavit states.

In a phone interview Friday, Perry declined to identify the company selected to build the new bridge.

In the lender's motion for relief, it notes that the continued destruction delays "expontentially increase the risk of tenant departures which could have a devastating and irreparable impact on the value of the property."

The motion alleges there currently is no equity in the property, and claims its "as is" value is roughly $6.4 million.

The question of when the mall will produce revenue again depends not only on the bridge's construction, but also the willingness of existing tenants to remain at Crossings Mall after months of losses.

"The majority are wanting to come back as of right now, but the frustration levels are increasing on a daily basis," Perry said. "If there are longer delays, we'll definitely run the risk of losing more tenants, [but] I don't want to get into the specifics right now."

Perry wouldn't say which tenants have terminated their leases, but Bob Evans announced in the weeks after the flood it would not reopen. Kroger, one of the mall's largest tenants, also sent out a notice of default under its lease last year.

The lender, U.S. Bank Association, sued Tara Retail in federal court in September after Tara defaulted on a $13.6 million loan, with no ability to make payments from tenants who couldn't access the property.

Kanawha County Manager and fiduciary supervisor Andrew Gunnoe said the county also will file what's known as a joinder in support of the lender's motion for relief.

"The point of that is saying two things: We support any and all action for relief from the stay in order to get the bridge rebuilt, and also we're requesting that the judge has a hearing on it as soon as possible," Gunnoe said.

Also entered into the record on Friday was a letter from Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper to U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Patrick Flatley, who is hearing the case. The letter also requests that Flatley take action to expedite construction of the new bridge by granting relief of the stay.

Carper also noted in the letter that the county declared the mall a public nuisance last year, as there is no route for fire suppression equipment to reach the property despite the presence of two large underground gasoline tanks on the site.

Tara Retail has until Feb. 17 to object to the motion for relief.

Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.

Police have arrested two people accused of invading the home of an 84-year-old woman, robbing her with a sawed-off shotgun and threatening to kill her.

Lt. Steve Cooper, the Charleston Police Department's chief of detectives, said that a teenage boy was arrested Thursday night for his role in the Wednesday robbery.

Another teenager, 18-year-old Trevon Means, of Charleston, was arrested Friday afternoon.

Police have previously said that four men, who were armed and wore masks, entered the home on Delaware Avenue at about midnight.

The woman, Betty Umberger, received minor injuries when one of the men shoved her over a chair. She was home alone at the time. Cooper said Friday that she is "physically OK."

Means is charged with first-degree robbery and burglary.

Umberger told police that one of the men pressed a sawed-off shotgun into her chest and said "I will f---ing kill you," according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

They took her television, car keys, cell phone, Kindle, jewelry box with jewelry, and her dark gray Chevrolet Malibu, the complaint says.

On Thursday, police found T.M., a suspect who was not named because of his age, with three other people in a green Buick near Charleston. The driver began driving "in an aggressive manner" toward Charleston on MacCorkle Avenue, the complaint says.

After losing sight of T.M., police found the vehicle unoccupied, rolling down the street on 5th Avenue. Several parked cars had been struck, and two people were running toward the river bank.

At the river, they found T.M. and Trevon Means had jumped into the river.

Police say the vehicle was reported stolen.

On Thursday, Means told police he was with Jonathan Pannell, juveniles T.M. and Q.W. and another male he didn't know while in the Buick.

He said they drove to Delaware Avenue and went to the back of 119 1/2 Delaware Ave., and the unknown person had a firearm with tape on it. He said they began to search inside the home. After three of them left, he said he left with the unknown male.

He told police they put a TV in the back of the victim's car, and left the scene.

Means didn't answer reporters' questions during his walk to a police car Friday and remained mostly silent during his arraignment before Kanawha Magistrate Rusty Casto.

He did ask assistant Kanawha prosecutor Maryclaire Akers about his minimum sentence, but she told him he would be given a court-appointed attorney. The robbery charge comes with a minimum sentence of 10 years if he is convicted.

Casto set bail at $50,000 cash. Means said he has no source of income during the arraignment.

Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.

A Guatemalan man pleaded guilty to an immigration crime Friday in federal court in Charleston.

Obed Zabaleta, 23, pleaded guilty to illegally reentering the United States, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Carol Casto's office.

Zabaleta was removed from the U.S. to his home country on July 24, 2014 and again on Jan. 15, 2015, the release states.

Last November, Zabaleta was pulled over in a traffic stop by a West Virginia State Police trooper on I-79 in Charleston.

Zabaleta faces up to two years in prison when he's sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston in March. He is also subject to deportation proceedings at the conclusion of the criminal case, the release states.

A North Carolina man was sentenced Friday to spend more than a year in federal prison for selling heroin in Charleston to a confidential informant.

Adam Denson, 29, of Gastonia, previously pleaded guilty to distribution of heroin, a news release from U.S. Attorney Carol Casto's office states.

Denson admitted that he sold heroin to an informant on May 14, 2015, at the Little Page Terrace apartments on Charleston's West Side. He also sold the drug to an informant on three other occasions that month.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston sentenced Denson to spend a year and a half in prison.

GRAFTON (AP) - West Virginia State Police are investigating two separate shootings in Taylor County involving law enforcement officers.

Lt. Michael Baylous, State Police spokesman, said a person was fatally shot Friday when the Taylor County Sheriff's Office was serving a warrant and found the suspect inside a home with a gun.

Baylous said in an email another shooting occurred Thursday involving Grafton Police Department and a suspect with a knife. That suspect is in stable condition.

Identities were not immediately released.

One of the nation's largest drug distributors says West Virginia's poorest and most drug-ravaged county has no authority to sue the company for problems caused by prescription painkillers.

Last week, Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health asked a federal judge to dismiss a recent lawsuit filed by the McDowell County Commission, arguing the county should be pointing the finger at "pill mill" doctors and pharmacies.

"Without a doctor to prescribe them and a pharmacy to dispense them, the opioids shipped ... would not be in the hands of county citizens," Cardinal Health's lawyers wrote in the motion to dismiss.

Cardinal Health said it couldn't police pharmacies or doctors, and the McDowell commission would be unable to show the company sold a single pill to a pharmacy that wasn't licensed and in good standing with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and West Virginia Board of Pharmacy.

"This lawsuit is misguided," the drug distributor's lawyers wrote.

The McDowell County Commission also named drug wholesalers AmerisourceBergen and McKesson in its lawsuit. AmerisourceBergen filed a motion to dismiss the case last week, making arguments similar to Cardinal Health's. McKesson did not ask the judge to toss the lawsuit.

In Cardinal Health's motion, the company said McDowell County wants to bar shipments of prescription drug orders, but the county has no authority to do so.

"The county is the wrong plaintiff because the real victims ... are the individuals who were recklessly or criminally prescribed opioid drugs by pill mills," lawyers wrote.

McDowell County's lawsuit alleges the drug distributors failed to report suspicious orders for "obscenely large quantities" of prescription drugs. The suit said the companies also had a duty to refuse to ship suspicious orders.

State regulations only require drug firms to report suspect orders, not to stop shipments, Cardinal Health said. McDowell County can't regulate the company's conduct in a way that's inconsistent with state law, the lawyers wrote.

In its lawsuit, McDowell County also seeks to recover costs related to the opioid problem - things like increased law enforcement and emergency ambulance services.

But Cardinal Health, which distributes more prescription drugs in West Virginia than any other company, argues that a legal precedent called the "free services doctrine" bars such claims.

"The police do not present a bill for their time when they cite a negligent driver for a fender-bender, nor does the fire department when it puts out the fire caused by the homeowner's misuse of flammable liquids," Cardinal Health's lawyers said in the motion to dismiss.

The drug company also said West Virginia has a two-year "statute of limitations" on the types of negligence claims made by the McDowell commission. The county's allegations about the drug companies' alleged misconduct dates back to 2012.

Cardinal Health noted that McDowell County filed suit against four local pharmacies in 2013, alleging the drugstores dispensed an excessive number of pain pills. The commission later voted to drop the lawsuit, and the case was dismissed.

"[Drug wholesalers] merely deliver products to pharmacies, who have legal, ethical and professional responsibilities to dispense pursuant only to legitimate medical prescriptions," Cardinal Health's lawyers wrote in last week's motion.

McDowell County is one of more than a dozen counties and cities in West Virginia that have filed lawsuits against drug wholesalers - or announced plans to sue the companies - during the past month. McDowell also named a doctor as a defendant, alleging he over-prescribed pain medications

In early January, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen announced they had agreed to pay a combined $36 million to the state to settle a four-year-old lawsuit that alleged they helped fuel West Virginia's prescription drug problem. In their motions to dismiss, the companies' lawyers argue that the state - as part of the settlement - granted the wholesalers a release from future damage claims.

The drug distributors have said the recent spate of county and city lawsuits are nothing more than "copycat suits" driven by trial lawyers.

Reach Eric Eyre at ericeyre@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4869 or follow @ericeyre on Twitter.

Marriages

The following people filed for marriage licenses in Kanawha County between Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, 2017:

Christopher Ray Ramsey, 45, and Crystal Dawn Smith, 38, both of Charleston.

Serry Afif Habash, 36, and Andreea Iulia Slusarciuc, 25, both of Charleston.

Danielle Marie Ackerman, 32, of St. Albans and Morgan Denise Cardamone, 27, of Utica, Michigan.

Jeremy Raymond St. Clair, 35, of Elkview and Lara Hibbs, 43, of Beckley.

John Riley Stone, 69, of Diana and Leona Charlotte Boggs, 66, of East Bank.

Robert Joseph Payne Jr., 49, of Charleston and Tammy Jane West, 48, of Paden City.

David Gennings Davis, 54, and Jessica Marie Facemire, 40, both of Nitro.

Matthew Lee Kincaid, 39, and Robert Lynn Dameron, 63, both of Carleston.

Samuel James Wilder, 22, of St. Albans and Ashley Nicole King, 19, of Danville.

Donald Lee Jones, 73, and Marilyn Kay Webb-Reed, 61, both of Charleston.

Edward Louis Stow Sr., 31, and Morgan Elizabeth Helmick, 29, both of Dunbar.

Divorces

The following people filed for divorce in Kanawha County between Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, 2017:

Fred W. Tyson from Kathryn M. Tyson

Walter Lee Seals from April Ann Seals

Anthony Wayne Pomeroy from Lisa Kay Pomeroy

James Edward Rucker Jr. from Misty Ann Rucker

Spencer Allen Sayre from Porchia L. Sayre

Harley Mitchell Comer from Autumn Jayne Johnson

Autumn Jayne Johnson from Harley Mitchell Comer

Amanda Gail Wolfingbarger from Allen Dale Wolfingbarger

Sheri Jean Lowery from James Robert Lowery Jr.

Victoria Lynn McClung from Allen Bradley Cosby

Brandi Ann Cooper from Zachary Taylor Cooper

Kayla Michelle Hughes from Caleb James Bays

Property transfers

The following property transfers of $75,000 or more were recorded in Kanawha County between Jan. 26 and Feb. 2, 2017:

Christopher S. and Amy W. Dodrill to Robert K. and Cheryl S. Welty. Lot, Charleston, $355,000.

Linda K. Price-Shawyer to Jesse L. McQuerry and Monica Duffield. Parcel, Elk District, $94,000.

Eric J.. and Jessica L. Roberts to Robert L. and Amy L. Beaver. Lot, Elk District, $115,000.

Paul E. Goff to Jonathan K. and Amanda A. Roop. Lot, Union District, $200,000.

James C. McLane and Jack R. McLane to Deborah S. Wheeler and Michael L. Grass. Lot, Poca District, $80,000.

Barbara Lou Bibbee to Andrew Scott and Nicole Lynn Danter. Lot, Jefferson District, $130,000.

Rilla Skeen Smith to Benjamin J. Hamrick. Lot, Union District, $150,000.

George J. and Ellen J. Davis and Orace W. Meadows et al. to Capital Investment Group LLC. Parcels, Union District, $1,425,000.

Erin Paternostro to Amy D. Teter. Lot, Charleston, $185,000.

Trademark Investments LLC to Travis J. and Jessica M. Criner. Lot, St. Albans, $103,500.

Amy K. Haught to Richard Spiegel. Condominium, Charleston, $88,000.

Lisa M. Stephenson to Justin M. and Tracy Nicole Phillips. Parcels, Cabin Creek District, $140,000.

Teresa A. Williams to Judith Harrison. Lot, Nitro, $145,000.

Robert D. and Linda L. Van Meter to Lisa M. Stephenson. Lot, Pratt District, $160,000.

Terry D. Sayre and Jennifer Herrald to Robert L. and Chandra T. Massey. Lot, Spring Hill, $264,000.

Sacred Heart Riverview Terrace Inc. to Herman G. and Barbara L. Canady. Condominium, Charleston East District, $292,300.

Margaret S. Anderson and Tracy Allison Anderson to David C. and Crystal D. Hays. Lot, Elk District, $79,900.

Timothy E. Skiles, Kevin D. Skiles and Greta L. Skiles to Krystal Martin. Parcel, Malden District, $81,000.

James W. Lowry to Dakota M. Epling. Lot, Union District, $84,500.

Jodie Campbell to Veronica A. Deno. Lot, Jefferson District, $133,000.

Gary E. Tanner to Larry Wallace. Lot, Union District, $90,000.

Donna Kelly to Sabastian R. Haynes. Parcel, Union District, $85,000.

David Brian Rogers and John Raymond Rogers to Hannah L. Doss. Lot, St. Albans, $120,000.

Donald L. White and Carla Hall to George Darin Fisher. Lot, Charleston, $138,000.

Walter R. and Vivian R. Myers to A&M Properties and Investments LLC and Montani Properties LLC. Lot, Charleston, $45,000.

Patty Deluca to Douglas C. and April M. Green. Lot, Charleston, $198,200.

Samuel Securro Jr. to Marta R. and Clarence R. Hays. Lot, Charleston, $139,000.

Holli Burford to Jason L. Forrester and Maria Phillips. Lot, St. Albans, $114,000.

Bankruptcies

The bankruptcies listed below are limited to those filed by residents or companies in the Gazette-Mail's circulation area. Chapter 7 designates the liquidation of non-exempt property; Chapter 11 calls for business reorganization; Chapter 13 establishes a schedule of payments to creditors. The following bankruptcies were filed between Jan. 27 and Feb. 3, 2017:

Aaron Ward Hager, Branchland, Chapter 7. Assets: $5,950, Liabilities: $27,618.

Steven Wayne and Kathleen Ray Cantrell, Tornado, Chapter 7. Assets: $27,874, Liabilities: $70,459.

Madge Elaine Crouch, Charleston, Chapter 7. Assets: $4,499, Liabilities: $33,667.

Steven Allen and April Marie Keffer, Richwood, Chapter 7, Assets: $49,528, Liabilities: $62,229.

Homer Stanford Jr. and Mary Beth Sizemore, Montgomery, Chapter 7. Assets: $182,706, Liabilities: $268,596.

Thomas Lee Keene and Vicky Lynn Terry-Keene, South Charleston, Chapter 7. Assets: $26,175, Liabilities: $58,089.

Linda Kay Harvey, Mount Nebo, Chapter 7. Assets: $3,300, Liabilities: $7,034.

David Eugene and Loretta Lynn Vance, Lyburn, Chapter 7. Assets: $67,291, Liabilities: $56,199.

Matthew David and Crystal Lynn Pauley, Belle, Chapter 7. Assets: $106,465, Liabilities: $144,505.

Cindy Sue Redden, Rainelle, Chapter 7. Assets: $258,950, Liabilities: $210,903.

Jeremy Leon Hager, Whitesville, Chapter 7. Assets: $353,520, Liabilities: $199,499.

Amanda Shea Legg, Daniels, Chapter 7. Assets: $3,720, Liabilities: $50,565.

Mary Louise Holt, Rhodell, Chapter 7. Assets: $43,049, Liabilities: $87,288.

Charles Joseph Sloan, Beckley, Chapter 7. Assets: $114,864, Liabilities: $83,425.

Hedy Jimenez Mountbatten-Windsor, Charleston, Chapter 13. Assets: $34,535, Liabilities: $125,213.

Lisa Renee Hicks, Charleston, Chapter 13. Assets: $74,102, Liabilities: $138,212.

Michelle Lea Mooney, Elkview, Chapter 13. Assets: $38,633.00, Liabilities: $69,901.