Appalachian School of Law shooting suspect arraigned on capital murder charges
By MIKE STILL
GRUNDY – Peter Odighizuwa appeared in court Thursday morning to face formal murder and attempted murder charges while Appalachian School of Law students and staff gathered with Grundy residents to mourn the victims of the former ASL student’s alleged shooting spree.
Odighizuwa, 43, was arraigned in Buchanan County General District Court on three capital murder charges, three attempted capital murder charges, and six associated felony use of firearm charges in connection with the ASL shootings, which left the school’s dean, an associate professor and a first-year law student dead and three students injured.
Odighizuwa, wearing a green jail uniform and handcuffs, stood quietly and hid his face behind a sheaf of legal papers as Buchanan County Commonwealth’s Attorney Sheila Tolliver read off the charges she sought against the former ASL student.
Most of the courtroom gallery behind Odighizuwa was blocked with a police tape line, while ASL students, faculty, staff and area residents filled the remaining seats, lined the courtroom walls, and stood outside the courtroom doors to listen to the proceedings.
The shooting incident began about 1:15 p.m. Wednesday when Odighizuwa came to the ASL main building to meet with a professor about his academic suspension.
Authorities say the Nigerian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen asked the professor to “pray” for him before going to the second-floor offices of Dean L. Anthony Sutin and Professor Thomas F. Blackwell and fatally shooting them.
Odighizuwa is then alleged to have gone to a first-floor lounge area and fired upon a group of students, killing first-year student Angela Dales and wounding students Rebecca C. Brown, Martha M. Short and Stacey Beans. Odighizuwa then went outside the building, and a group of male students subdued and held him until police arrived.
Virginia State Police spokesman Mike Stater said Thursday that the wounded students’ conditions had been upgraded since Wednesday night.
Stater said Odighizuwa’s estranged wife was believed to have left the area with the couple’s children.
General District Judge Patrick Johnson appointed Radford attorney James Turk Jr., a capital case-certified lawyer in Virginia, to handle Odighizuwa’s defense, sparking a brief outburst from Odighizuwa as he demanded to have Richlands, Va., attorney James Carmody appointed as his lawyer.
Odighizuwa later asked Johnson to allow him to contact his doctor about obtaining his prescription medicine, and Johnson ordered the sheriff’s department to work out the details after setting a March 21 preliminary hearing date. No bond was set.
Tolliver later said she planned to seek the death penalty against Odighizuwa, and the March 21 hearing would probably deal with various defense and prosecution motions rather than any plea on the defendant’s behalf.
Stater said investigators have a list of 44 eyewitnesses to interview in the case, and police believe Odighizuwa legally obtained the .380-caliber Jennings semiautomatic pistol retrieved at the shooting scene Wednesday.
According to Buchanan County Juvenile and Domestic Court records released Thursday, Odighizuwa had been charged with misdemeanor assault and battery against his wife, Abieyuwa Odighizuwa, on Aug. 15, 2001. An emergency protective order was issued against him that same day. A domestic relations judge dismissed the complaint in November after his wife testified that their dispute had been settled.
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