Women indicted for murder plot
Published 12:00 am Saturday, September 29, 2007
Two women arrested last week in a murder-for-hire scheme have been indicted by a Lawrence County grand jury.
According to the information from the office of Lawrence County Prosecutor J.B. Collier, Jr., Valerie Mantle, 37, and Barbara Mantle, 61, both of 722 Vernon St., were each indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and felonious assault.
The women, a mother and her adult daughter, were arrested after they met with an undercover police officer and offered to pay him $250 and some prescription drugs if he would kill Joseph A. Cox, Valerie Mantle’s ex-husband.
The alleged incident took place on the Speedway convenience store parking lot on Park Avenue. Both women remain in the Lawrence County Jail under a $250,000 bond each.
Valerie Mantle told The Ironton Tribune last week that the charges against her and her mother are “false.” Barbara Mantle did not make any comments about the incident.
Others indicted were:
4Kathy Christian, 48, 61 Township Road 84W, Willow Wood, eight counts of violation of certification under Ohio motor vehicle law.
4David Christian, 31, 61 Township Road 84W, Willow Wood, four counts of violation of certification under Ohio motor vehicle law.
4John McHaffie, II, 50, Huntington, W.Va., one count each of illegal cultivation of marijuana and having a weapon under a disability.
4Calvin D. Kersey Sr., 44, 1021 County Road 210, Waterloo, one count each of having a weapon under a disability, a felony, and misdemeanor aggravated menacing.
4Justin C. Kersey, 19,
1021 County Road 210, Waterloo, improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation.
4Jerome Speck, 27, rape. The victim was a boy under the age of 13. The incident took place some time between January 1989 and December 1999.
4Lowney Dossey, 25, 216 Township Road 140 W, Pedro, felonious assault.
4Matthew Bloomfield, 21, 12246 State Route 93, Pedro, one count of felonious assault, seven count of disrupting public service, seven counts of theft and two counts of tampering with evidence. He is accused of stealing telephone wire from AT&T and selling or trying to sell the copper inside it.
4Phillip R. Delong, 21, 10764 State Route 243, Pedro, one count of felonious assault, seven count of disrupting public service, seven counts of theft and two counts of tampering with evidence. He is accused of stealing telephone wire from AT&T and selling or trying to sell the copper inside it.
4Brandi Traylor, 24, possession of drugs, aggravated trafficking in drugs, endangering children and possession of criminal tools. She is accused of selling or trying to sell prescription medication intended for her child.
4Reginald Kinstler, 28, 1213 S. Fifth St., Ironton, complicity to a felony count of breaking and entering, and misdemeanor counts of criminal damaging, possession of criminal tools, theft and receiving stolen property.
4Gary Lee Newcomb, 46, 2043 Township Road 179, Ironton, one count each of failure to comply with the order and signal of a police officer and failure to report a change of address as required under the Ohio sex offender notification laws.
4Diana Maynard, 49, 1206 County Road 14, Pedro, complicity to improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation.
4Larry Blagg, 50, 154 Township Road 1100, Pedro,
improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation.
4William Bryant, 25, 612 Pike St., Pedro, grand theft of firearms.
4Toby Nelson, 31, Franklin Furnace, two counts of forgery.
4Aaron C. Adkins, 20, 111 Fairview Ave., South Point,
intimidation of
a witness. He is accused of going to the home of a woman who had filed charges against him, damaging her property and scaring her.
4Billy Cooper, 20, 17844 State Route 243, Chesapeake, rape. The victim was a mentally challenged adult.
4Corey Evans, 30, Flatwoods, Ky., gross sexual imposition. The victim was a boy under the age of 13.
4Isaac Mendoza, 24, 1216 S. Fifth St., Rear, Ironton, felonious assault.
4Zachary Miller, 38, Huntington, W.Va., grand theft of a firearm and breaking and entering. He is one of several people accused of breaking into the J&J gun store in Burlington earlier this year.
Additionally, there were six secret indictments, all drug related. The grand jury met Thursday and Friday.