The death of Mathews Commonwealth’s Attorney Marie Walls, who passed away from an apparent gunshot wound on Tuesday, Feb. 10, was still under active investigation by the Virginia State Police as of press time on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
Asked for some kind of reassurance about the nature of Walls’s death, VSP spokesman Matt Demlein said in an email that the agency still has no comment on the matter. Sheriff April Edwards said the investigation is out of her hands and she cannot comment on the matter either.
With court cases piling up, the judges of Virginia’s 9th Judicial Circuit, assisted by the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys, are in the process of selecting an interim commonwealth’s attorney to serve in Mathews until an election can be held for the position.
Amanda M. Howie, executive director of the association, said efforts are being made to have an interim commonwealth’s attorney appointed “in the very near future,” possibly as soon as next week. Two or three names are under consideration for the position, she said, and while “we’re nearing the end of the process,” there are details that have to be worked out to ensure fairness to all concerned. The person who is appointed will need to remain in place for a considerable amount of time, Howie said, until a special election for the position can be held.
According to the Code of Virginia, Section 19.2-155, when a vacancy occurs in a constitutional office in a locality with a population of 15,000 or less, the vacancy will be filled by a special election held during the November General Election.
The Mathews Board of Supervisors was scheduled to hold a special meeting today, Thursday, Feb. 19, for a closed session. Chairman Tom Bowen said the board also plans to take up a resolution during that meeting petitioning the Virginia Board of Elections for a writ to hold the special election as required.
Howie said that after Walls died, the judges appointed special prosecutor Monique Donner from Gloucester to handle Mathews cases until an interim commonwealth’s attorney can be appointed.
Theft reported at the Walls home
A press release from the office of Sheriff April Edwards stated that on Monday, Feb. 16, multiple community members had reported a theft from Walls’s home on New Point Comfort Highway.
While investigating the theft, deputies and investigators came to focus on a 41-year-old female resident of Mathews who worked as a subcontractor/delivery driver for FedEx. The woman had previously been the subject of a traffic stop and a subsequent drug investigation. The sheriff’s office had recently received test results from the state lab, and investigators obtained an arrest warrant for the woman for possession of a Schedule I/II controlled substance (methamphetamine) while operating a delivery truck.
Because the woman was actively wanted for the drug offense, the sheriff’s office stopped her on Tuesday morning while she was operating her delivery truck in the 11100 block of Buckley Hall Road. She was arrested and taken into custody without incident. A 32-year-old male resident of Mathews who was in the truck with her was discovered with a quantity of suspected methamphetamine and was also taken into custody and charged with possession of a Schedule I/II controlled substance.
Officers had earlier obtained a search warrant for the woman’s home in the 11100 block of Buckley Hall Road, and they executed that warrant, along with agents from the Virginia State Police Tri-Rivers Drug Task Force. The search resulted in the recovery of items that were reported to have been delivered to Marie Walls’s address following her death. The combined value of the stolen items was less than $1,000, and the woman was also charged with petit larceny.
Both the woman and the man are being held at the Middle Peninsula Regional Security Center. She was issued a $3,000 secured bond, while he was issued a $5,000 secured bond.
“Evidence indicates that these thefts occurred after the death of Ms. Walls,” said the press release. “There is no evidence that indicates this is in any way related to the manner and cause of her death.”