Alderson Mayor Travis Copenhaver and Lloyd “Billy” Lightner, Jr. were recently arrested on three felonies, including burglary and child neglect. Both men were released after posting a $5,000 bail.
According to the criminal complaint, an Alderson resident called the police, stating their “landlord’s son wrecked the house he was renting” and “scared his girlfriend while she was at the residence alone the previous night.” The next day, June 19, an officer with the West Virginia State Police met with a man and a woman at an Alderson residence.
The woman explained to the officer that she brought her vehicle to the residence in order to repair it. She backed into a parking place to “allow the tow truck to be able to access the car easier.” A vehicle from behind the residence then “sped up to where she was parked, boxing her in.”
“Two large men and a juvenile” got out of the vehicle. Lloyd “Billy” Lightner … approached her vehicle and pulled open her driver’s side door, … asked what she was doing there and who she was. … Lightner stroked [the woman’s] arm and back of the neck as he reassured her everything would be alright.”
The man told the officer he “received a call from” the woman, who said “there was someone at the residence that wanted to talk to him. [The man] next heard Lightner’s voice on the phone, [who] kept asking where he was and when he could be there. [The man] hung up the phone and immediately came to the property.”
The man then described arriving to the scene, with Lightner “in his face, cussing him, calling [him] a piece of s*** and a p**** b****.” The man then told Lightner he “was trespassing and was going to force him to call the police.” In addition, he “describes how Travis Copenhaver approaches him from the opposite side of [Lightner] and makes him uncomfortable to the point he takes a few steps back. [The man] stated that he then called 911 … at 2231 hours on June 17, 2021.”
After Lightner and Copenhaver left, the man “entered the house and discovered his Remington .170 rifle and the Black Bear compound bow missing from the residence.”
The complaint notes both were “drinking beer,” and the State Police officer confirmed Michelob Ultra bottles lying on the ground around the residence.
During their interview, the woman led the officer through the home, into the bedroom and back storage area. Personal items “were in drawers near the bed and away from view, … but [the men] had went through the drawers and collected” the items. The woman “was embarrassed and nervous to know that her privacy had been invaded.” Another Michelob Ultra was found on the dresser, a type of beer neither the man nor the woman drinks.
The man also explained to the officer that “he keeps his rifle loaded and the bullets were given back to him with the rifle. At the time the rifle was stolen, it was loaded.” The man “also observed drawers containing clothing and private material had been rummaged through.” He later was contacted by Lightner’s mother and “made arrangements to return the above mentioned rifle and compound bow that was stolen during the incident outlined above.”
The man also “stated the bed had been dragged away from the wall, and someone had urinated in his bed [and] also saw a Michelob Ultra bottle still containing suds on his dresser in the bedroom.”
This is not the first incident that has resulted in charges for both Lightner and Copenhaver.
The pair, alongside Shannon Earhart and Timothy Smith, were indicted in 2018 for their role in the investigation of the shooting of Mac Brackenridge by Fredrick Tolliver.
According to testimony given by a state trooper who responded to the initial incident, the four codefendants had been riding in a side-by-side, “drinking some beers,” when they had an altercation with Tolliver. After the incident, the group went out for recreational shooting. On the way back to Earhart’s home, the group then pulled into Tolliver’s driveway “to mess with him after [the earlier] incident,” and Tolliver opened fire on the side-by-side. Brackenridge was paralyzed by the incident.
A Summers County Grand Jury declined to indict Tolliver for the incident. However, Copenhaver, Lightner, Earhart, and Smith each received three counts: conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor, giving false information to a member of the department of public safety, and obstructing.
Copenhaver would later enter a pretrial diversion through a deal with Summers County Special Prosecutor Jennifer Crane, approved by Summers County Circuit Court Judge Robert Irons.
An agreement between the state and Copenhaver was filed in September 2019, allowing for a pretrial diversion, a program in which first-time criminal offenders perform community service, obtain drug or alcohol treatment, make restitution, or other alternatives. According to the agreement, the state would drop the three-count indictment after six months if Copenhaver completed 75 hours of community service and does not violate any laws.
This would prove to be the case.
“This 20th day of November, 2019 came the defendant, Travis L. Copenhaver, by his council, Joseph Aurcremanne, and tendered his motion to dismiss the above indictment upon the grounds that he has complied with the provisions of the pretrial diversionary agreement. And it appearing that the defendant has satisfactorily completed more than 75 hours of community service and has not violated any municipal, state, or federal law since he entered into the agreement, his motion to dismiss is well taken. … it is the order, judgement, and decree of this court that the above styled indictment shall be, and is hereby, dismissed with prejudice from the docket of this court and the defendant’s bond is released.”
Both Copenhaver and Lightner were arrested on September 4 for the alleged June assault, charged with felony burglary, conspiracy, child neglect, and misdemeanor assault.
Bail was approved for Copenhaver on September 4, totaling $5,000. Lightner was approved for bail September 7, also totaling $5,000.
Copenhaver declined to comment for this story.
Alderson Mayor Travis Copenhaver |
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