Kanawha Judge Questions Charges

{Charleston, West Virginia}...In May, a grand jury indicted Ethan Samuel Chic-Colbert on charges including murder and kidnapping. Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor Dan Holstein says, on March 4th, Lynitrah Woodson was driving Chic-Colbert, her son and two other children home from a skate park on Corridor G when she and Chic-Colbert began arguing. During the argument, Woodson tried to call her mother, causing Chic-Colbert to beat her. Holstein says Woodson pulled the car over near the Leon Sullivan Way exit, and Chic-Colbert dragged her out of the car by her hair, sat on top of her, and pounded on her with both fists. Her son, 11 year old Jahlil Clements, wearing dark clothes and waving his arms, ran into traffic trying to flag down help when a car struck him. During a pretrial hearing Tuesday, Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom asked Holstein to prepare a detailed brief describing the state's evidence of kidnapping and murder. Holstein asked Bloom to allow the state to present its case for the murder and kidnapping charges in the trial next week, arguing that murder charges against Chic-Colbert should stick because he essentially held Woodson against her will while Clements ran into traffic. Chic-Colbert's lawyer, Justin Collins, asked Judge Bloom to consider changing the venue of the trial for fear media attention has swayed the Kanawha County jury pool, but Bloom disagreed.