RICHMOND,VA BONDSMAN SHOT THIS MORNING 3-6-08

That aint no kiddin Bill. A local business man got arrested a few years ago for molesting his 14yr old daughter. One of our agents knew the guy really well. OR so he thought. He didnt believe he did it. He took 4k out of his own pocket to an attorney to get his bond switched from 100k cash only to 50k surety. The guy paid him back for the atty fee and paid the bond fee. Then when his case got close to the end, he took off.

5300 miles later, we caught the guy after chasing him from here to Idaho and finally to Arizona. He was waiting for a "wagon train" of motor homes to leave Yuma going to Argentina.

Dont trust anyone.

Well, my son Tim did an interview today on channel 13, Lynchburg... if you interested here is the link:
http://www.wset.com/news/stories/0308/5 ... =newsstory

_________________
Bill Marx, Sr.
"FREE STATE BAIL BONDS"
"FREE STATE INVESTIGATIONS"
DCJS: 99-176979
Cell: 434-294-0222

"Endeavor to Persevere" "Lone Watie"

"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that , comes from bad judgment" "Will Rogers"

Bail bondsman shot from behind; man admits to shooting

Friday, Mar 07, 2008 - 10:52 AM Updated: 11:11 AM

A Richmond bail bondsman was shot three times from behind as he attempted to arrest a fugitive in South Richmond, a city prosecutor said today.

Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Matthew P. Geary said that James E. Carr, 20, has admitted to shooting James W. Woolfolk III early yesterday in a house on Joplin Avenue near Jefferson Davis Highway.

Carr was arraigned for Woolfolk's murder today by video conference with Richmond General District Court in Manchester. The hearing was conducted by video because of threats against Carr's safety by other inmates, Geary said. A preliminary hearing was set for March 26 in Richmond Circuit Court in Manchester.

Woolfolk, a 39-year-old Church Hill resident and father of a teenage daughter, was the first bail bondsman killed in the line of duty in the memory of people in the business. Jail inmates rely on bondsmen to bail them out of custody while they await trial.

Geary said Woolfolk died from shots to the back of the head, back of the neck and back. Woolfolk was attempting to arrest Carr for failure to appear in court last month on a charge of felony drug possession and three misdemeanor offenses.

Carr was arraigned today on those offenses, as well as a felony charge for failing to appear in court. General District Judge David E. Cheek Sr. set a trial date of April 2 on those charges.

In both cases, Carr was given a court-appointed lawyer, Dean Marcus, for his defense.

Contact Michael Martz at mmartz@timesdispatch.com

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

Bill, your son did a damn fine job! Infact it offered the option to embed the video so I tried to load it on my MySpace page. . . but it would not show up. darn it!!!!

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

More on the story.



The Small World Of Homicide

Posted: March 7, 2008 09:29 PM PST

As cops and longtime reporters will tell you, it's a small world of crime - and an even smaller world of homicide. The paths of victims, perpetrators and witnesses often intersect mysteriously, as if they're threads in a spider's web.

Case in point:

We heard in the wee hours Thursday morning that a bail bondsman had been shot in a tough South Richmond neighborhood. CBS 6 producer Lauren Mackey and I figured he was trying to pick up a skip and got blasted.

On the rare occasion when violence erupts during these kinds of street-level judicial proceedings, it's typically the bondsmen and their minions doing the damage.

In 1994, a Chesterfield bondsman and a Hopewell bounty hunter got in trouble for roughing up a client who had skipped out on a $1,500 bond. They made him pay for it by pulling out one of his gold teeth with a pair of pliers.

And in 2002, a bounty hunter working for a bondsman broke into the wrong South Richmond apartment and fatally shot a newly arrived Mexican immigrant.

But Thursday morning's case was just the kind of attack every bondsman and bounty hunter fears.

The bondsman died of his wounds. The skip he was trying to pick up barricaded himself in a nearby home until police nabbed him.

The victim's name sounded mighty familiar... James Woolfolk III.

I finally got a chance to run it down today (Friday). Sure enough, I had written a story 10 years ago about Woolfolk and a 13-year-old boy by the name of Sterling Phillips.

It was one of those tough stories that illustrates the inner-city family dysfunction that leads to so much mindless violence.

Three days before Christmas 1998, little Sterling - a boy who lived like a man - was shot to death in James Woolfolk's Church Hill bedroom.

Sterling had been lounging on the bed, talking on the phone with his girlfriend. Woolfolk was in the living room with his own girlfriend, watching a video, when he heard the sound of gunfire. Someone standing outside Woolfolk's house fired 13 shots from a 9 millimeter pistol through the bedroom window and shade, seven of them striking little Sterling.

His last words: "James! I've been shot!"

Woolfolk ran into the bedroom and pulled up the shirt of the boy he had sort of adopted.

He told me back then that his heart sank as he saw the bullet holes in Sterling's chest. The blood kept spreading as the boy died.

Woolfolk remembered meeting Sterling that summer, when the boy wandered into Woolfolk & Sons Seafood Restaurant on Mechanicsville Turnpike. He wanted a job washing dishes.

Woolfolk said he took a liking to the boy who had ready smile and a nervous habit of scratching his head.

Sterling was a good worker who thrived in the restaurant's family atmosphere, waitress Phyllis Mundy told me back then.

Shortly after they met, Sterling moved in with Woolfolk.

At the time, Woolfolk told me that Sterling's mother had given him permission to do so. She was a drug addict. Sterling's dad wasn't in the picture much. Teachers and administrators at the boy's school didn't know he wasn't living with a family member.

There were - and are - dozens, if not hundreds, of children just like him in this city.

Kids in the inner city grow up in an environment where "you get more respect coming out of jail than coming out of high school," Woolfolk told me then.

That's why, he said, he took child psychology classes at St. Paul's College in Lawrenceville and a foster parenting class in Richmond.

One of Woolfolk's Church Hill neighbors said he and his wife didn't care for the steady stream of juveniles that visited Woolfolk's house. They had even called police and Youth Protective Services in an attempt to interrupt the parade of youth.

Sterling's own father, who I caught up with at the boy's funeral, said that he didn't like his boy living with Woolfolk. "There's a whole lot of unanswered questions," he told me.

When I asked Woolfolk about this, he declined to respond, saying the police would sort it out. He said he had just been trying to help the boy and was still sick about the sight, the sensation, of Sterling dying in his arms.

Police investigators eventually did sort it out. Two teens were arrested. They killed Sterling, according to court testimony, to strike back at his mother because of her drug debts. Sterling's mom admitted in court that she had a drug problem, but denied that she got her supply from the accused teens.

Fast forward to this week ...

The 20-year-old man accused of killing James Woolfolk early Thursday morning, James Elbert Carr, has the same kind of background as the teens who killed little Sterling 10 years ago.

Last year Carr was convicted of drug and trespassing charges in the Hillside Court housing project just down the street from where Woolfolk died, court records show.

And in January, Carr was arrested again on drug and trespassing charges in North Richmond. He was released on bond - a bond he skipped. Which is why Woolfolk was trying to pick up this fugitive.

Yes, it's a small world of crime - and homicide.

It's a tangled, dangerous world - something James Woolfolk surely knew.

And yet, when he entered James Carr's home early Thursday morning, an official source tells me, James Woolfolk didn't have a gun.

A candlelight vigil will be held Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at Woolfolk & Son's Restaurant in the 1600 block of Mechanicsville Turnpike, where both James Woolfolk and young Sterling used to work together.

Tony first off I would like to thank for posting that . Every article posted about this guy leads me to believe that the World has seen a GOOD SOUL pass as well as a Good Man.
The following is another news paper article . . . making me ask WHY can the people not arm themselves when doing this work.
When I dig the article up about us carrying here while working I will send it. Actually is a Arkansas Supreme Court ruling.

on second thought I am going to post the article immediately after I post this. It deserves being posted alone.

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

Slain bail bondsman was unarmed
Woolfolk's state license didn't allow him to carry a firearm, source says

Saturday, Mar 08, 2008 - 12:09 AM

By MICHAEL MARTZ
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
James W. Woolfolk III apparently was unarmed when he was shot three times from behind -- in the back, neck, and head -- as he tried to arrest a fugitive in South Richmond.

Richmond prosecutors say the suspect, James E. Carr, has admitted to shooting Woolfolk -- the first bail bondsman to die in the line of duty in Virginia in memory.

Woolfolk was not allowed by his state license to carry a gun, and there is no indication he had one with him, according to a law-enforcement source.

Carr, 20, is facing murder and weapons charges in Woolfolk's death, as well as two felony charges and three misdemeanors that already were pending in the city.

He is scheduled for a hearing Monday morning in South Richmond on a felony grand larceny charge. He also faces a later hearing in Henrico County on a charge of violating the terms of his probation on a larceny conviction.

Some inmates at the Richmond City Jail have made threats against Carr because he is charged with killing a man they had relied upon to bond them out of custody.

Bondsmen "have a very good rapport with the people they bond out," said Sheriff C.T. Woody, a former homicide detective who knew Woolfolk and his family.

Woody confirmed yesterday that Carr will not be held in the Richmond jail for his own safety. Instead, the sheriff's department planned to transfer Carr from the City Lockup in downtown Richmond to an unspecified facility outside the city. The lockup is a temporary detention facility in the city's Public Safety Building.

Carr was arraigned twice yesterday, first appearing by video conference with the Richmond General District Court in Manchester on the murder charge. He then appeared in person before General District Judge David E. Cheek Sr. on the pending felony and misdemeanor charges.

He faces a preliminary hearing on the murder charge March 26 in the Manchester court. He will be tried April 2 before Cheek on the charges that brought Woolfolk to a house in the 2300 block of Joplin Avenue early Thursday morning to arrest Carr for failing to appear in court last month and forfeiting his bond.

Woolfolk, who had gone into the bail-bonding business with his brother, Kermit, more than a year ago, went into the house alone, according to a law-enforcement source. The source also said the bondsman was allowed into the dwelling without force.

Police responded to a call at 2:22 a.m. and found Woolfolk dead at the scene.

About four hours later, police traced Carr to a house a few blocks away in the 1800 block of Joplin, near Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School. Aided by Virginia State Police, they surrounded the house, where Carr held four children and three adults hostage. He surrendered less than two hours later, and police recovered a gun at the scene.

Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Matthew P. Geary expects to bring charges of first-degree murder and unlawful use of a firearm to a multijurisdictional grand jury March 19. Carr probably won't face charges from the hostage standoff, which involved family and friends, the prosecutor said.

Carr is represented by court-appointed attorney Dean Marcus.

Carr already has made a statement in the murder case, according to Geary, who said yesterday, "He admitted to the shooting."

Woolfolk's death hit hard at Richmond City Jail, which stands a few blocks away from Woolfolk & Sons Seafood Restaurant at 1627 Mechanicsville Turnpike.

A candlelight vigil will be held in front of the restaurant tomorrow at 6:30 p.m., said Alicia Rasin, a Woolfolk family spokeswoman and founder of Citizens Against Crime.

A funeral is scheduled Tuesday at 1 p.m. at Cedar Street Memorial Baptist Church, 2301 Cedar St.

The bondsman used to work at the restaurant, which the family has operated for more than 30 years. He based his bonding business at his home on North 23rd Street.

"This is a big deal," said Capt. Jerry Baldwin, spokesman for the Sheriff's Department.

Woody said Woolfolk was well-liked and respected at the jail. "He had a very quiet way and respectful way," the sheriff said.

"He knew what he was doing."

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

So sad...I feel for his family...

_________________
Kate
650.863.8470

" Yeah, I see ya, you ding dong..."

The newspaper article gives the wrong impression. I am sure this bondsman could have opted to secure a firearms endorsement (required of all Virginia DCJS licensees who wish to carry a weapon in the course of their work) in addition to his Bail Bonds license. He apparently chose not to for reasons of his own that we will never know.
Unfortunately, he was the first bondsman in Virginia who has suffered this fate, according to the newspaper article. Sounds like he had a wonderful family and friends network and he will be greatly missed.
I think that working alone, as he was, in this type of business is particularly risky. I have encountered several Virginia BEA's so far who work alone more often than not.
Since Virginia is one of only 10 states in the country which allows the open carry of guns without a permit, Virginia is not a strict state in regards to the right to bear arms.
Does anyone happen to know the statistics on BE work related fatalies of BEA's.. across the nation?

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Jenifer Jewell
AT YOUR SERVICE BAIL BONDS & RECOVERY
Private Investigator/Bail Enforcement Agent/Bail Bonds
DCJS 99-183465
Virginia

To my knowledge no agency tracks those statistics. We aren't government funded, so therefore no reason to track us.

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River City Associates
Decatur, Al. 35601