DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Mechanicsville, VA 23111
Vol. 26, No. 26 | Richmond Suburban Newspapers | October 31, 2012
STOPS AT EVERY HOME IN TOWN
Eminent domain on ballot By Emily Darrell Richmond Suburban News
Eminent domain – the seizing of private land by a government for public use, with compensation to the landowner – is an area of government and law that even lawyers and politicians will say is often complex, generally complicated, and always controversial. On Tuesday, Nov. 6, Virginians will get the chance to vote on an amendment to the state constitution that will make changes to the eminent domain law.
Vi rg i n i a , like many other states, was spurred to review its eminent domain legislation in 2005, when a U.S. Supreme Court decision – Kelo v. City of New London – made national headlines. In the case, a homeowner named Susanne Kelo sued
her Connecticut city – a city that had been in economic decline for decades – after it seized her home to make way for a Pfizer chemical plant on the grounds that the plant would stimulate the local economy and provide jobs, thus serving the greater good. Ultimately, the Pfizer project fell through, with Kelo and her neighbors having been forced from their homes for nothing, and the Supreme Court’s decision was widely unpopular with both liberals and
Trio found guilty in Wells’ death By Bill McKelway Richmond Times-Dispatch The grief over young lives lost spread last week from a beloved Atlee High School student shot down during a drug deal in January to the three young men behind the fatal shooting. On Tuesday, Oct. 23, verdicts from retired substitute Richmond Circuit Judge Walter W. Stout III found each of the three guilty of five charges, two of which carry life terms,
for conspiring to rob and then shooting to death Brett Wells, a lanky, church-going 16-yearold who led a double life as a drug dealer working from his family’s home. Stout, separately addressing the defendants as they stood before him after a two-day bench trial, convicted them of first-degree felony murder in the commission of an attempted robbery; two firearms charges; a charge of conspiracy to rob; and of a charge of aggravated mali-
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cious wounding. The verdicts brought wails of anguish from the families of the three defendants and nearly simultaneous sobs of grief from family and friends of Wells, an Atlee student who was shot through the heart and spinal cord with a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol the night of Jan. 21. Wells, 6 feet tall and weighing 186 pounds, bled to death from the single gunshot wound. His body was discovered beside see GUILTY, pg. 26
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Polling places change The location of a few polling places in Hanover County have been changed, effective with the Nov. 6 General Election. They are: Ashland District: 105 – Berkley Precinct is now located in the Ashland Fire Station at 501 Archie Cannon Drive in Ashland. Chickahominy District: 303 – Shady Grove
Precinct is now located in Washington-Henry Elementary School at 9025 Washington Henry Drive in Mechanicsville. Mechanicsville District: 604 – Hanover Grove Precinct is now located in the Mechanicsville Library at 7461 Sherwood Crossing Place in Mechanicsville. see POLLING, pg. 4
see EMINENT, pg. 24
On duty Photo submitted by Paula G. Hill
SPC Dante Hill is shown with his military working dog, Jessie, while on patrol in Helmand Province in Southern Afghanistan. A 2008 graduate of Hanover High School, Hill is on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. Thanks to his mother, Paula G. Hill, he is able to keep up on the news with The Mechanicsville Local.