Richmond Times-Dispatch from Richmond, Virginia • B2

B2 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH Have a news tip? During normal business hours, call our News Information Desk at (804) 649-6990. At other times, call Local News at (804) 649-6331 At TlmesOtspatdusm Read more news about your area by going to the "Metro Virginia" page at our website. Richmond 6 Goochland treasurer probe widens office. Special prosecutor Jeffrey W. Haislip, the Fluvanna County commonwealth's attorney, on Friday successfully gained a court order seeking all financial documents from Essex Bank linked to accounts Grubbs allegedly set up there, daring to 2004.

The court order specifically asks for details of all transactions involving an account in the name of someone named Craig Anderson Comb. The order asks for "information as to any accounts opened by Grubbs or attempted to be opened by her for any other person, including but not limited to" any account in the name of Comb. The court order also directs a backeround check of 51 socks when they arrested her, according to court documents. A spokesman for Essex Bank said Monday that the bank had not received the subpoena for the documents but said the bank would "cooperate fully with any investigation." It could not be determined who Comb is, nor is the identity clear of another individual whose name has been linked in court documents to Grubbs, Bobby Johnson. Search warrants list an e-mail address for Johnson that, when searched on Google, produces warnings about romance scams in Nigeria; search warrants also have alleged that Grubbs was dealing with unnamed contacts in Dubai.

Grubbs made a brief court appearance yesterday at a hearing in which a preliminary hearing in connection with the embezzlement charge was put off until May. Walter Kucharski, state auditor of public accounts, said preliminary findings of his investigation into the county's treasurer's office reveal broad problems, but he declined to say if the $135,000 embezzlement estimate Grubbs suggested to Agnew is a reliable estimate. Kucharski said a key objective is reopening the treasurer's office in the county, but he could not offer any estimate about when that could happen. Functions there are being handled in the commissioner of the revenue's office, and a Department of Motor Vehicles field office has been set up in a mobile office outside the county's administrative offices. brockriwciy ffitJrnfisriKfVftcti.com (804)649-6601 Special prosecutor in case seeks records back to 2004, her first year in office BY BILL McKELWAY Richmond Tlmes-Dlspatch New court documents show that investigations into the practices of former Goochland County Treasurer Brenda S.

Grubbs are reaching back to 2004, Grubbs' first year in office. Grubbs, who briefly appeared in Goochland General District Court on Monday to prove that she has hired a lawyer, dealt with Essex Bank, as well as Wachovia, according to court documents seeking all financial transactions linked to Grubbs at the two banks. Grubbs, 53, who remains free on bond, resigned Friday afternoon, sparing the governor's and attorney general's offices a prolonged effort to remove her. The county Board of Supervisors had voted Wednesday to ask Gov. Bob McDonnell to initiate the ouster proceeding when Grubbs showed no wish to resign and remained treasurer despite her arrest Grubbs' one-sentence resignation letter Friday came in the wake of her arrest Feb.

2 on a single charge of embezzlement after Grubbs told Goochland Sheriff James Agnew that she had embezzled as much as $135,000 in county funds since August But records in Goochland Circuit Court suggest that 'Virginia State Police investigators are interested in Grubbs' financial dealings stretching back to her first year in Grubbs Grubbs. A search warrant issued in Henrico County for Wachovia records, meanwhile, states that 'Virginia State Police have obtained bank withdrawal slips used by Grubbs ranging from June 23, 2010, through Jan. 28, 2011. All of the slips contained the signature of Grubbs, according to the warrant, including a $9,450 withdrawal Dec. 17.

State police obtained a photograph from a bank camera showing Grubbs making that withdrawal, according to the search warrant Investigators found evidence when she was arrested of e-mails sent to an unidentified subject in Nigeria and "copies of money remittal receipts" showing she has wired money to Nigeria, according to the search warrant. Agnew and other investigators found various documents hidden in one of Grubbs' Crime and Police News Richmond vigil planned for shooting vktim RICHMOND Alicia Basin, founder of Citizens Against Crime, is holding a vigil for Barbara A. "Bobbie" Stinnett on Wednesday, one week after Stinnett was fatally shot in Richmond. The vigil will be held at 5 p.m. outside Stinnett's home in the 500 block of North 26th Street in the city's East End.

Stinnett, 26, and a man were shot Wednesday night outside the Popeyes franchise at 2709 Chamber layne Ave. in North Richmond. The man suffered a graze wound to his head, police said. Stinnett was taken to VCU Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Police said last week that investigators believed robbery was the motive.

Authorities charged Kevin M. Scott, 18, of Henrico County and a 16-year-old girl each with one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the shooting. The female suspect also was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery. Man arrested in shootings of two women RICHMOND Authorities have arrested a man wanted in the shooting of two women early Saturday, Richmond police said Monday. Justin Horace Belnavis, 28, of the 1000 block of North 35th Street was arrested by the Richmond area's U.S.

Marshals Fugitive Task Force late Saturday night, police said in a news release. He was charged with felonious assault, possession of a firearm by a felon and using a firearm in a felony. The shootings took place about 12:45 am. during an argument in the 2000 block of Accommodation Street, police said. One victim was in critical condition; the other victim's injury was not life-threatening.

Henrico apartment fire is caled accidental HENRICO Henrico County authorities say a two-alarm fire Sunday morning that caused substantial damage to an apartment building was accidental in nature. Fire Capt. Chris Buehren on Monday said an electric light fixture that overheated in one of the units was determined to be the cause of the fire, which was reported shortly after 9:30 a.m. in the 4200 block of Whit-ford Court, near Gaskins and Springfield roads. No injuries were reported.

Pedestrian Wiled by train in uiesterneKi chesterfield Chesterfield County police are investigating the death of a pedestrian who was struck by a train Sunday night. The fatality occurred at 6:10 p.m. while the train was traveling south near the Castle-wood Road overpass, a short distance west of Jefferson Davis Highway just south of the Richmond city line. Police said the victim, a male, was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity was being withheld pending notification of relatives.

Leader of prize-winning car team convicted Lynchburg Oliver Kuttn-er, the leader of a team that created a prize-winning lightweight car, was convicted Monday of disorderly conduct He was fined $250. Lynchburg police say Kuttn-er became confrontational after he was pulled over Oct. 12 for having an expired registration sticker. Kuttner's Lynchburg- based Edison2 won a $5 million prize in 2010 for developing a car that can run for more than 100 miles on a gallon of gas. From staff and wire reports KEVIN MORLEVTNES-mSnaCH Marriage protest in Richmond After petitioning for a license for a same-sex marriage at the John Marshall Courts Building, Vicki Jolena (left and her partner, Bobtri Orthaus, gathered with others outside the courts building in downtown Richmond on Monday.

Couples went to the marriage-license agency at noon to apply for licenses but were turned down. But they were told that their applications would be kept on file. Gay-riits protest Watch a valentine's Day rally at the John Marshall Courts Building protesting the state ban on same-sex marriage on TlmesDlspatch.com. Search: Video Self-defense claimed in Chesterfield case him that night and cornered him in the master bedroom. Simpson, 56, is being tried on a first-degree murder count in the Feb.

2, 2010, fatal shooting of his stepson, with whom Simpson had a contentious relationship since entering Mason's life at about 13. The fatal confrontation began late on the evening of Feb. 1 after onstrated how the events unfolded and opened a locked gun safe in his garage so they could retrieve the pistol he used. Simpson said he had endured years of threatening behavior from Mason, and he shot him as the teen came toward him "I'm not going to produce a gun unless I'm scared for my life," said Simpson, who owns about 20 guns, has a concealed-weapons permit and enjoys recreational shooting. But Archie testified that Mason never touched Simpson that evening or on any other day, although she acknowledged her son had threatened Simpson when provoked.

With the prosecution resting its case late Monday, defense attorney Greg Sheldon plans to call his only witness Simpson to testify this morning in his own defense. Defendant charged in fatal shooting of his stepson BY MARK BOWES Richmond Tlmes-Dlspatch Jurors in a Chesterfield County murder case will have to decide whether Peter Simpson killed his 19-year-old stepson in self-defense or maliciously gunned down the teen in a late-night domestic clash that was years in the making. Prosecutor Julia Sichol laid out a scenario that had Simpson grabbing a gun from his night-stand and shooting an unarmed Devon Mason four times after the teen came to his mother's aid during an argument between Simpson and his wife. But in an interview with investigators immediately after the shooting, Simpson said he was merely defending himself when the 250-pound Manchester High School graduate came toward of his bedroom when she refused to leave, and Mason heard the commotion and intervened, according to testimony. When Archie and Mason pushed their way through Simpson's door, Simpson retreated to his nightstand, pulled a pistol and shot Mason four times.

Just how close the teen was and whether he was physically threatening Simpson is in dispute. Mason collapsed in the bedroom doorway and was unable to move after one shot severed his spinal cord. Simpson, a registered nurse at VCU Medical Center, stepped over his stepson on his way outside the family's home on Flag Tail Drive and called 911. Archie, also a nurse, administered first aid, but Mason died after being taken to the hospital. Simpson told police in several recorded interviews played Monday for the jury how and why he shot his stepson, dem Simpsons wife, Francelia Archie, overheard her husband making a 911 call to Texas on behalf of a woman with whom he had an affair several Simpson years earlier.

Simpson told Archie that the woman's boyfriend had beaten her up. Simpson and his wife were sleeping in separate bedrooms that night because of an earlier dispute, but Archie confronted Simpson about the phone call, and an argument ensued. Simpson began pushing his wife out mbowBS0tlmBsrihpatrJi.com (804)649-6450.