May 24, 2012
11pm Wednesday: Second Suspect Arrested
10pm: History of Domestic Violence
UPDATE 1/2/12 @ 12:30 p.m.
BOONE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Boone County Sheriff's Deputies say they've tracked down a third suspect in connection with a hostage situation earlier this week.
Over the weekend, deputies arrested Darrel McNeely. They say he was caught at a home in Yawkey.
Deputies say McNeely helped Clark during the hostage situation. He's been charged with felony accessory before and after the fact of kidnapping.
McNeely is being held in the Western Regional Jail.
Melissa Breedlove faces five counts of aiding in kidnapping. She lives next door to the house where the hostage situation unfolded.
The woman found her husband Barry Clark inside. Deputies say he forced her friends into a bathroom and then beat and sexually assaulted her several times. Clark then allegedly made her friends set the house on fire.
After her friends were released and Clark fled the scene, deputies say two other neighbors found his wife and started beating her even more.
One of those neighbors has been arrested and is believed to have helped plan it all.
Deputies believe she knew everything Barry Clark had planned to do including holding his wife against her will, hurting her, sexually assaulting her and eventually burning down the house.
Breedlove is one of the people deputies believe attacked the victim in this case outside her home after she'd been sexually assaulted.
They say Breedlove knew Clark was waiting for his wife to come home and heard her scream.
"More so in the planning, at least she had knowledge of what was about to take place, some explicit knowledge of what was going to take place,” Boone County Sheriff Rodney Miller said. “(She) didn't bother to do anything about it, knew of the actions that were made after she met with Mr. Clark before and after these incidents, as well as helping to hide some evidence."
Breedlove was not given any bond, and she repeatedly declined to comment on the arrest.
This marks the second arrest in this case.
The man deputies say started the whole thing was arrested Tuesday, but it turns out he should have been in jail before those crimes happened.
Court records show Clark violated those bond conditions, so a magistrate issued a warrant for his arrest Jan. 19. That’s four days before these crimes happened.
Also, he was scheduled to be back in court the day they happened, but he didn't show up. So another arrest warrant was issued.
However, the sheriff's office didn’t' receive any of the paperwork until it was too late.
As for why the paperwork didn't show up on the sheriff's desk until Tuesday is still a mystery.
Clark remains in jail, facing several charges including five counts of kidnapping. No bond was set.
According to a press release from the Boone County Sheriff's Department, Melissa Breedlove, 39, is being charged with accessory before and after the fact, in connection with the kidnapping and assault that happened Monday night.
Deputies say Barry Clark took his wife, and four other people, hostage Monday night. They say he locked those four people in the bathroom while he sexually assaulted his wife.
Investigators spent most on Wednesday interviewing witnesses in the case and recovering more evidence in connection with the kidnapping, assault and arson, according to the release.
Breedlove will be arraigned in Boone County Magistrate Court Wednesday night.
We have a crew in Boone County at this time.
Keep clicking on WSAZ.com for the latest information.
Boone County Sheriff's deputies say Barry Clark took his wife and four other people hostage Monday night.
They say he locked those four people in the bathroom while he sexually assaulted his wife.
He then forced the hostages to set fire to the house, deputies say.
His wife was able to get away but was then attacked by two neighbors, deputies say.
Deputies eventually found her husband hiding in the woods.
They say this incident was far from Clark's first run in with the law.
He's been in and out of court several times just in the last two months.
"It is a concern of law enforcement because in the short period of time we were having to deal with him, there were such frequent and violent calls for service,” Sheriff Rodney Miller says.
It all started on Nov. 15 when he was arrested for domestic assault and a weapons charge. The magistrate set his bond at $200 cash on each charge.
Two days later, he was arrested again on a charge possession with intent to deliver marijuana. For this charge, the magistrate set his bond at $1,000 cash.
In early December, deputies say he violated the domestic violence petition his wife had filed against him. He was released on a personal recognizance bond.
Just last week, he was back in court again facing domestic assault charges. He was once again released on a personal recognizance bond.
Magistrate C. Porter Snodgrass handled these cases. When WSAZ.com contacted him Tuesday night, he said he didn’t recall many specifics of the cases and did not want to comment until he was back in his office.
Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Plans says these kinds of situations are more common than people may expect.
"In the end, domestic violence petitions and court orders are just pieces of paper. And, unless someone's incarcerated, then there's nothing preventing that person from going into anyone's house and attacking them or abusing them," Plants says.
However, he still urges people who would qualify for them to seek domestic violence petitions and seek help from family members and friends to escape the cycle of violence in these domestic situations.
Snodgrass handled Clark’s arraignment Tuesday and did not grant him bond on the five kidnapping charges he faces. Deputies also charged Clark with sexual assault, arson and malicious wounding. Bail was set at a combined $150,000 on those remaining charges.
There are additional arrests pending in this case, deputies say.
This story also involves four other hostages and two other suspects.
Deputies say those hostages were forced to set a house on fire while the woman who lived there was assaulted by not only her husband, but also by two of her neighbors.
“The house was on fire. We had victims all over the area. Plus, we had an individual that was on the run,” Boone County Sheriff Rodney Miller said.
The case wasn't easy to piece together, but it ended with Barry Clark, 61, in handcuffs.
Deputies say when Clark’s estranged wife, Chandra Clark, returned home Monday night, he sexually assaulted her while holding four of her friends hostage in a bathroom.
He then allegedly forced them to set her house on fire. Deputies say he made them leave and then fled into the woods, leaving his wife to be found by two neighbors who were also up to no good.
“They attacked our victim again and beat her even more, after her husband had inflicted those injuries on her,” Miller said.
Those two neighbors have not yet been charged.
After all of that, Chandra was able to run to a different neighbor’s house
“She said she'd been beat up and held hostage by her husband,” the neighbor said. “Bruises and cuts on her. She was in pretty bad shape.”
Some neighbors say they weren’t surprised by what happened.
“I know Barry so it didn't surprise me that he acted out like that,” Patricia Adkins, a neighbor, said.
Adkins has reported Clark's behavior before, and Clark has been arrested four times in the past few months.
Clark was arraigned Tuesday afternoon and faces several charges, including arson and five counts of kidnapping. No bond was set on the kidnapping charges.
Boone County Sheriff's Deputies tell WSAZ.com just after midnight Tuesday they were called to a home along Rattlesnake Hollow Road in Morrisvale where a woman said her husband held her and four others at gunpoint for more than three hours.
According to a news release, when deputies got on scene they found Chandra Clark hiding at a neighbor's house. She was badly beaten, according to deputies. Four others were hiding in the woods and a home was on fire.
Chandra told deputies Barry Wayne Clark, 61, of Morrisvale, was waiting on her when she returned Monday night from grocery shopping with some friends. Chandra says Clark confronted the group with a knife and handgun, according to the release.
Deputies say that's when Clark locked four of the people in the bathroom while he repeatedly beat and sexually assaulted his soon to be ex-wife. According to the release, Clark then ordered the victims to gather items in each room of the house and set them on fire.
When the house was on fire, Clark ordered the group to leave and threatened to kill them if they called police or returned to the house, according to the release.
Deputies searched the woods several miles from where the alleged crime took place before they were able to catch up with Clark.
Clark was arrested and charged with five counts of kidnapping, first degree sexual assault, malicious wounding and arson. He's expected to be arraigned on the charges Tuesday morning.
This isn't the first time Clark's been in trouble with the law. According to the release, when this incident took place Clark was out on four separate bonds for other incidents including domestic assault, possession with intent to deliver marijuana, violation of domestic violence petitions and other charges dating back to November 2011. Deputies say the majority of the charges were related to domestic assaults against his wife.
Clark was also under a domestic violence petition at the time of this latest arrest.
According to the release, deputies are still investigating the case and more arrests are expected.
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