Woodson considering guilty plea

An Afton man charged in the Interstate 64 shootings in March is considering pleading guilty in Albemarle County.

According to a motion for continuance filed Wednesday in Albemarle Circuit Court, Slade A. Woodson has requested additional time to consider a change of plea. Woodson originally was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for a bench trial.

“The defendant, Slade Woodson, intends to change his plea from not guilty to guilty, but needs additional time to make a final decision,” the court document states.

When asked if Woodson had been offered a plea agreement, Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford said Thursday that she could not comment.

“I can’t discuss those kinds of things,” Lunsford said.

Public Defender James Hingeley also declined to say whether a plea agreement was on the table.

“It’s one of those things that I can’t say,” Hingeley said Thursday.

An Albemarle grand jury indicted Woodson in June on two counts of malicious wounding, two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony, five counts of maliciously shooting at an occupied vehicle, three counts of shooting from a vehicle to endanger people, two counts of shooting at an occupied dwelling and one count of attempted malicious wounding.

Woodson and 16-year-old Brandon Dawson each were charged with 15 felonies in connection with the March 27 sniper fire. Authorities shut down a stretch of I-64 for several hours that morning while they investigated the shootings. Several Albemarle homes and vehicles were shot during the incident, and two people were slightly injured.

After appealing his original sentence of indeterminate time in a state juvenile facility, Dawson was sentenced again in July to a 180-day intensive juvenile program.

Woodson is facing sentencing on a handful of charges in Waynesboro in connection with shots fired at a bank, car and home on the same day as the I-64 events. According to court records, Woodson pleaded guilty June 24 to two counts of discharging a firearm at an occupied building, three counts of maliciously shooting from a vehicle and one count of destruction of property.

He faces up to 55 years in prison for the Waynesboro shootings, and more than 100 years in prison if convicted of all 15 felonies in Albemarle.

Woodson is being held at the Middle River Regional Jail in Verona.