Carol Paul Cormier, 33, of Cardinal, accused of the July 10 double murder of Chad Wayne Ashford and Audrey Elaine Hudgins of Mathews, appeared in Mathews General District Court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing. At the end of the hearing, Judge Wade Bowie said there was enough evidence to find probable cause and certified two charges of murder to the grand jury.
Four additional charges—two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, one of possession of a firearm by a convicted non-violent offender, and one of arson of an occupied dwelling, were nolle prossed by Mathews Commonwealth’s Attorney Marie Walls. She explained in a subsequent interview that those charges can be brought back based on additional evidence and legal research, if the Commonwealth so chooses.
Cormier’s accused co-conspirator, Lacey Ann Horsley, 18, of Gloucester, appeared in court, as well, but she waived her preliminary hearing, and the charges against her—two charges of being an accessory after the ...