Inside A3 Powhatan Christmas home tour
Powhatan, Virginia B1 DeLeon, Chisholm play in Big River Rivalry
Vol. XXIX No. 50
December 21, 2016
Office of Chief Medical Examiner declares Powhatan County man’s death a homicide By Laura McFarland News Editor
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Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19
OWHATAN – The Powhatan County Sheriff’s Office has said it is now investigating the death of a Powhatan County man killed on Friday, Dec. 9 as a homicide. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has determined the death of John R. Rafter Jr., 48, of Powhatan County to be a homicide as the result of a gunshot wound, Capt. J. S. Searfoss said on Wednesday, Dec. 14. Rafter’s discovered in the 2100 block of Flint Hill Road on Dec. 9 after the sheriff’s office received a 911 call at about 8:45 a.m. reporting a death, Searfoss said. The sheriff’s office has not released the exact location or the conditions in which Rafter was found, but Searfoss said in a release on Dec. 14 that a large amount of evidence has been and continues to be collected. He later said that he called the medical examiner’s office on the morning of Dec. 14 and confirmed Rafter’s death is a homicide involving a gunshot wound but said he hadn’t receive the full report from the office yet. He added that all search warrants related to this case were sealed by the commonwealth’s attorney’s office. The Powhatan County Sheriff’s Office is being assisted by the Virginia State Police, The Chesterfield County Police Department, The Richmond Police Department, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Powhatan County Commonwealth’s Attorney Office, and the Office of the Attorney General with this case. Searfoss said in an interview on Dec. 14 that when the sheriff’s office requires a specialty skill during an investigation, it can rely on a combination of task forces and other agencies
PHOTOS BY LAURA MCFARLAND
On the afternoon of Dec. 9, a sheriff’s deputy car was still parked in front of 2140 Flint Hill Road. According to the county’s Geographic Information System (GIS) database, the house’s property owners are John R. Rafter Jr. and Karina M. Rafter. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has determined the death of John R. Rafter Jr. was a homicide as the result of a gunshot wound.
to help provide some of those skills. He used the example of high technology crime analysis skills and pointed out that the Powhatan County Sheriff’s
Office does not have a high tech crime section. “That just doesn’t exist. We have criminal investigations and they can do a lot of things, but those highly spe-
N E L L I S H O PE S F O R T H E B E S T, R E A D Y F O R T H E WO R S T By Laura McFarland
DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Powhatan, VA 23139
News Editor
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OWHATAN – Curt Nellis is completely fine with working hard at a job where he hopes the results of his labor are never
needed. As Powhatan County’s part-time emergency management coordinator, it’s Nellis’ job to make sure the county’s government employees and citizens are as prepared as they can be to respond to or recover from the effects of a disaster. Whether it is a hurricane, flood, snow storm, or even an attack of some kind on Powhatan citizens, getting the right people trained and ready to respond in a worst case scenario is all about planning ahead, said Nellis of Powhatan. “It is not good when emergency managers are busy. That means bad things are happening to really nice people. So we want to spend time creating plans and procedures and training and exercising for something that never happens,” he said. “But if it does, our goal is to make sure what we did prepared those people to do their jobs properly.”
Settling into the job Nellis took over the job in July from Floyd E. Greene Jr., who retired from this position as well as handling the county’s emergency communications. Nellis has been familiarizing himself with the different emergency management plans and procedures already in place in the county. The months since taking on the role haven’t been as busy as they could have
cialized things, we rely on many agencies that do have that,” he said. Sheriff Brad Nunnally added that his office is “fully capable of investigating a murder case, but whenever we can we do like to consult with other agencies, especially agencies that have more of this activity in their counties than we do.” Searfoss reiterated in his second release that there is no reason to believe at this time that there is any threat to the public at large. Anyone who may have witnessed anything out of the ordinary in the Flint Hill Road area of Powhatan County on the morning of Dec. 9 is highly encouraged to contact the Powhatan County Sheriff’s Office at 804598-5656 as soon as possible. On Friday afternoon a sheriff’s deputy car was still parked in front of 2140 Flint Hill Road. According to the county’s Geographic Information System (GIS) database, the house’s property owners are John R. Rafter Jr. and Karina M. Rafter. Court records in the Powhatan County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office show that John Rafter filed from divorce from his estranged wife, Karina Rafter, on July 13, 2016 and later sought full custody of the couple’s two children. Karina Rafter was listed as living in North Chesterfield. The Rafters had previously married in November 2002 and divorced in July 2006, but they were remarried in November 2014, according to court records. A letter from John Rafter’s attorney submitted to the court showed that the Rafters were scheduled to appear for a hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 13 in Powhatan County Circuit Court to set the matter of their divorce for trial. Laura McFarland may be reached at Lmcfarland@powhatantoday.com.
Complaint filed on accessibility of school websites By Laura McFarland News Editor
been if he hadn’t had a good predecessor, said Nellis, who added that Greene left him with a good system so he doesn’t have to “reinvent anything. He left me a very good emergency operations plan. So it is a matter of tweaking things.” Still, Nellis is making his mark on the position. In that time, he said his best achievement is setting up a new Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the Fire and Rescue Offices, which are located in the basement of the Village Building, and teaching people how to use it. The room, which also serves as a meeting room and training room, holds several pieces of multimedia equipment with the goal of helping Nellis stay updated on various conditions. On one screen in the room, a live ra-
POWHATAN – The various websites run by Powhatan County Public Schools will be limited in the content they can show for the time being after an out-of-state complaint was filed saying the sites are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. At the Tuesday, Dec. 13 meeting of the Powhatan County School Board, Dr. Eric Jones, superintendent, informed the board members and the public that he had received a letter from the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) earlier this month saying not all content on the school district’s websites was accessible for people with disabilities. Jones said he later learned that the complaint didn’t come from anyone in Powhatan but from an individual or group in Michigan that is filing hundreds of similar complaints across the nation with the Office for Civil Rights. He said he had heard at least 500 school districts nationwide that have similar complaints. “There are hundreds of school districts across the country where this is taking place. This isn’t an isolated incident where we are being picked out because our website is subpar. It really is something that is going on throughout the country,” he said. Rick Cole, who represents District 1, said after Jones spoke to the board that he had heard at the Virginia School Board Association Law Conference that this kind of complaint might be coming. Currently, the complaint has not extended
see NELLIS page 4A
see COMPLAINT page 2A
PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND
As Powhatan’s emergency management coordinator, Curt Nellis plans for every eventuality and hopes none of them come true.