Princeton shooting suspect's case heading to grand jury
Jun. 22—princeton — A suspect in a shooting which injured four people June 14 during a family gathering at a local hotel is now heading to the Mercer County Grand Jury.
Christopher Antonie Wilborn Jr., 21, of Princeton was scheduled Friday for a preliminary hearing before Magistrate Susan Honaker. Wilborn was charged June 14 with felonies including four counts of wanton endangerment, malicious assault and three counts of unlawful assault, according to a criminal complaint filed by Detective-Lieutenant S.A. Sommers of the Mercer County Sheriff's Department.
Under West Virginia law, jailed defendants must have a preliminary hearing before a magistrate within 10 days of their arrest. Defendants can waive this time limit or waive the hearing entirely.
Attorney Joseph Harvey, who is representing Christopher Wilborn, informed Magistrate Honaker that his client was waiving the hearing. The case will now go before the Mercer County Grand Jury.
The next session of the Mercer County Grand Jury will be convened Oct. 15 to 16.
A family gathering was taking place the evening of June 14 at the Days Inn Conference Center off Meadowfield Lane near Princeton. Deputies spoke to several witnesses who saw the shooting, Sommers said.
Two witnesses identified Christopher Wilborn Jr. as the aggressor, stating he pulled into the conference center's parking lot, jumped out of his car and started shooting at Rykeem Wilborn who was standing in the parking lot with other people, Sommers said in his report. Two other witnesses said that Rykeem Wilborn returned fire once he was fired upon.
The shooting resulted in three adults and a 5-year-old child being hospitalized for gunshot wounds. One other adult was grazed by a bullet on his face but did not go to the hospital. All five of these people were in the direction Christopher Wilborn Jr. was shooting, Sommers said in the report.
"And the two people shooting were all family," Sommers said at the scene. "It was not an indiscriminate type what people call a mass shooting. This was an argument and a fight between family."
Capt. J.J. Ruble with the sheriff's department later said all the shooting victims were treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Wilborn left the scene and his car was found later. Wilborn turned himself in and was arrested without incident, Ruble said. He was transported to the sheriff's department for processing and then to the Southern Regional Jail. Later he was brought before Magistrate Mike Flanigan for an arraignment hearing.
Flanigan set a $1 million cash-only bond.
Contact Greg Jordan at
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
