Maryland Man Pleads Guilty To Copper Wire Theft

By Linda Cicoira
A Maryland man pleaded guilty to eight counts of grand larceny last week in Accomack Circuit Court in connection with the theft of green copper wire from several areas that belonged to the Accomack-Northampton Electric Cooperative (ANEC).
A presentence report was ordered for Darek Earl Synder, 38, of Costen Road in Westover, Md. His wife, Amanda Lea Grover-Snyder, 35, pleaded guilty to the charges a couple of weeks ago. Both confessed to the crimes. Darek Snyder has family ties in Maryland and Tangier, a court document stated.
In another case, Ronald Lee Hess Jr., 19, of County Road in Parksley, pleaded guilty to the strangulation of Mehreen Awan on July 26. Awan told authorities Hess “would not let her leave his residence although she asked to leave several times.” She “had multiple marks across her face, head, chest, neck, and back that appear to be consistent with an assault,” according to court records.
In a plea bargain, the charges of abduction and assault in connection with the incident were not prosecuted. Hess was sentenced to three years with all but time served suspended.
William Brent Laird, 37, of Tangier, was sentenced to three years with all but time served suspended for possessing of Adderall on Sept. 8.
Jermel T. Rowe, 38, of Pineridge Road in Melfa, was given a two-year suspended sentence for receiving a stolen credit card on Aug. 4, 2017. He got 90 days for credit card fraud to be served on weekends. Restitution of $173.91 is owed to Union Bank & Trust.
Thomas Phillips Collins, 46, of Hemlock Lane in Horntown, was sentenced to three years with all but time served suspended for making a burn threat to Judith Meske. Counts of making the threats to Charles Eisner and Elaine Baseman were not prosecuted. A condition of the sentence was that Collins have no contact with the victims. He was put on indefinite probation and on good behavior for five years.
The case of James Ernest Logan, 35, of Logan Road in Onley, was continued for a jury trial in April. He is charged with the March 18 robbery, use of a firearm in a felony, and malicious wounding of a man outside the victim’s home on Seaside Road in Painter.