A preliminary hearing has been set in April for the Spout Spring man charged with slaying his sister and believed by authorities to be responsible for the deaths of seven other people at his home.
Christopher Speight, 39, is scheduled to appear before an Appomattox County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court judge on April 29 for the hearing on a single charge of the first-degree murder of Lauralee Sipe.
Investigators have said he is also responsible for the deaths of Sipe’s husband, two of their children, another couple, their daughter and a teenage boy at the Snapps Mill Road home Speight shared with Sipe and her family.
They were discovered Jan. 19 after a neighbor found one of the men wounded but still alive in the road in front of the house.
Preliminary hearings are held to determine if a prosecutor is able to convince a judge that there are reasonable grounds to believe a person charged with committing a felony actually is responsible for the crime.
If a judge rules that probable cause has been shown, he may send the charge forward for consideration by a grand jury.
A similar showing has to be made for a grand jury to indict a defendant. After that happens, a trial can be scheduled in circuit court.
Appomattox County Commonwealth’s Attorney Darrel Puckett said in an earlier interview that he will meet with investi-gators once they have concluded their work to determine what other charges might be filed.
Puckett said he might consider capital murder charges, which bring the possibility of the death penalty.
Speight is jailed without bond at the Lynchburg Adult Detention Center.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement