Powhatan, Virginia
Inside B1 Powhatan basketball outlasts Orange in overtime
Vol. XXXI No. 25
December 20, 2017
Shooting death found to be justifiable hom icide By Laura McFarland News Editor
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Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19
OWHATAN – No charges will be filed in the September shooting death of a Powhatan County man after a multijurisdictional grand jury found it was a justifiable homicide and Powhatan County Commonwealth’s Attorney Richard “Dickie” Cox agreed last week with the group’s conclusion. Dana Travis Burdick, 35, of Powhatan, was shot at about 9:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 11, during an incident with family members at All Faze Auto and Body in the 3700 block of Anderson Highway. Burdick was shot once in the chest by his father, Dana Ritcher, and pronounced dead at the scene at 9:44 p.m. The commonwealth’s attorney’s office was not ready to present indictments so it presented the case to a new multijurisdictional grand jury shared by Amelia, Goochland, Powhatan, and Prince Edward counties. Based on the evidence it saw and heard, the grand jury had the authority to decide whether to indict anyone in relation to Burdick’s death. Rob Cerullo, deputy commonwealth’s attorney, first presented the case to the grand jury on Oct. 4 and they met two more times and gathered their own evidence before making a decision on Dec. 6. They then released their findings in a report that has since been unsealed. Based on the events that happened leading up to the final confrontation, the multijurisdictional grand jury concluded that Ritcher responded reasonably to excessive violence used by Burdick against another family member. The grand jury made the unanimous recommendation that “no probable cause exists to indict Dana Ritcher for the killing of Dana Burdick and that this killing was justifiable homicide,” according to the report. “The only effect of that is it carries a lot of weight with the prosecutor’s office because they have been empowered to decide these issues. We have empanelled them for this very purpose, to look at these
Christmas Mother helpers deliver gifts
cases and investigate them,” Cerullo said. The grand jury’s report was presented to Cox last week. After reviewing the evidence, he said he was in agreement with the grand jury’s conclusions that Burdick’s death was justifiable homicide. Accordingly, “this office will be filing no charges against Dana Ritcher related to this offense.” Before Cox made his decision, Cerullo had pointed out that if a grand jury already found that Dana Ritcher’s actions were self defense, “it is a fairly good argument that a regular jury is going to find self defense because the evidence is not going to change. We presented all of the evidence to the grand jury that we had and we wouldn’t have presented anything different to a regular grand jury.”
The night of Sept. 11
PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND
The investigation found that the case revolves mainly around four people: Burdick, Dana Ritcher, his son Travis Ritcher, and Burdick’s fiancé, who was not named. Cerullo said Burdick believed Dana Ritcher was his father, although by a different mother than Travis Ritcher, making them possible half-brothers. “Dana Ritcher says ‘I treat him like a son, but I have never had a DNA test done so I don’t know if he is my son,’ ” Cerullo said. According to the report, the altercation that led to Burdick’s death was related to a past sexual relationship between Burdick’s fiancé and Travis Ritcher. When Burdick discovered the nature of this relationship, he became angry with Travis Ritcher and made several threats of physical violence or death. These threats included verbal threats made to the fiancé and another unnamed witness and text messages sent to Dana Ritcher and were submitted in evidence gathered by the Powhatan County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated the shooting. On the night of Burdick’s death, he reportedly argued with his fiancé because of the past relationship and he became violent and broke items in the home before leaving the house. see SHOOTING, pg. 2 }
Powhatan Christmas Mother Josephine “Jo” Goodman had almost 40 volunteers pick up presents on Dec. 15 at May Memorial Baptist Church and deliver them to local residents. See photos Page 3.
Supervisors plan for county’s future By Laura McFarland News Editor
POWHATAN – The Powhatan County Board of Supervisors recently spent an afternoon having a frank discussion about what they see as the preferred focus of county administration in the next few years. Four of the board members attended a five-hour retreat on Thursday, Dec. 7 where they focused on a few main objectives: reconfirming and redefining the county’s existing Vision 2030 and the Strategic Action Plan and identifying specific priorities for fiscal years (FY) 2019 to 2021. David Williams, who represents District 1, was ill and could not attend. The discussion was facilitated by Lou O’Boyle, director of engagement for Zelos, a company that consults and trains governments and nonprofits. At the start of the meeting, Ted Voorhees, county administrator, assured the four board members present that they
PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND
Lou O’Boyle leads the Powhatan Board of Supervisors in a frank discussion about the county’s future.
were not there to undo anything they have already done in the time leading up to this point. see BOS, pg. 10 }
P I E T E C H S H A R E S C H R I S T M A S PA RT Y W I T H LO C A L K I D S By Laura McFarland
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OWHATAN – No matter which direction the children from the Bright Beginnings program turned as they explored PIEtech Inc., there was a new, over-the-top display meant to wow them. Down one hall was a room where white curtains hung on the walls and balls of fluffy white clouds floated above, all highlighted by blue lights to give a feeling of being lighter than air. Here, the children had their choice of cotton candy flavors and the opportunity to make a piece of jewelry to give to someone they love. Down another hall, the children, who each had their own adult playmate, could hold or pet reptiles ranging from a boa constrictor to large turtles to lizards. PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND Downstairs, a jovial Santa Claus waited in front of a festive workshop setting ready Powhatan-based PIEtech shared its company Christmas party for employto give them each a present bought specifi- ees’ children with local children in the YMCA’s Bright Beginnings procally for them. gram. A room full of reptiles they could interact with was one of the see PIEtech, pg. 8 }
special activities.
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