Rain, heavy at times early, diminishing to a few showers this afternoon. High 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible..
ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Police Officer J. Butts replaces crime-scene tape across Elizabeth Street at Jackson Street, on ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä’s East End, on Jan. 26, 2025. Earlier that morning, a man was fatally shot while sitting in a vehicle in a parking lot in the background, in the 400 block of Elizabeth Street.
Scratch-off lottery tickets led to the arrest of a Maryland man who has been charged with first-degree and second-degree murder in a January shooting of a St. Albans man on ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä’s East End.
ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Police Officer J. Butts replaces crime-scene tape across Elizabeth Street at Jackson Street, on ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä’s East End, on Jan. 26, 2025. Earlier that morning, a man was fatally shot while sitting in a vehicle in a parking lot in the background, in the 400 block of Elizabeth Street.
CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE | Gazette-Mail
Thursday evening, Joshua Robert Scales, 33, of Hyattsville, Maryland, was arrested in the 800 block of Walters Road in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, according to a news release from the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Police Department.
Scales was charged in the Jan. 26 death of Ethan Samuel Chic-Colbert, 34, who was shot multiple times and killed while he sat in his car in a parking lot off the 400 block of Elizabeth Street.
Alleged shooter waited for victim, shot 15 times
Scales arrived at the Elizabeth Street parking lot at 3:12 a.m. on Jan. 26, driving a Hyundai Sonata, according to a criminal complaint. Police say surveillance footage from the area shows Scales with a black pistol and wearing a black face mask and hoodie. He allegedly waited in his car for Chic-Colbert to arrive.
Surveillance video shows Chic-Colbert arriving at 3:36 a.m. in a Toyota Camry, and parking beside Scales’ vehicle. It is unclear from the complaint if the two men interacted in the parking lot.
At 3:40 a.m., Scales left the parking lot in his car, parking a short distance away to the west, on Jackson Street. He then walked back to where Chic-Colbert was parked and shot “approximately 15 rounds into the victim’s car,†according to the complaint. “Several of the rounds struck the victim from behind,†according to the complaint, and Scales then fled the scene in the Hyundai.
A woman in the Toyota with Chic-Colbert was unharmed, according to the complaint.
Scratch-off lottery tickets were the key, police say
Police said Scales’ vehicle was stolen from a Kanawha City woman in December. The vehicle reportedly was recovered Jan. 29 at an apartment complex in Kanawha City about a mile away from where it was stolen.
Scales purchased the stolen car on Dec. 22 from Thomas Means, who stole the car with another man on Dec. 21, according to the complaint. When the CPD Crime Scene Unit and detectives tested and searched the the car, they reportedly found gun powder residue in the vehicle, as well as three scratch-off lottery tickets. Detectives determined that the lottery tickets were purchased from a GoMart on Bigley Avenue on Dec. 21.
Surveillance footage at the GoMart shows a woman later identified as Melissa Perrelli as the purchaser of the tickets. She reportedly told police that her boyfriend, Means, and a friend of Means stole the Hyundai. Perrelli allegedly said Means and a police confidential informant sold the car to a man who went by the name “Smoove.â€
Police were aware of a man named “Smoove,†who was mentioned during a previous homicide investigation.
“Detective[s] utilized facial recognition from the (a statewide criminal database),†the complaint said, “on a photo from another homicide investigation where a man only identified as ‘Smoove’ was mentioned, and it came back to Joshua Robert Scales.â€
Means and the confidential informant reportedly confirmed that “Smoove†was Scales. Police said they had a cellphone number for Scales provided by Means. Verizon location data, obtained with a search warrant, showed Scales at the crime scene at the time of the crime on Jan. 26, according to the complaint.
Scales was incarcerated Thursday at the South Central Regional Jail without bail.
The death of Chic-Colbert is the only reported homicide in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä or Kanawha County in 2025.
Shooting victim found guilty in boy’s 2012 death on interstate
In July 2012, Chic-Colbert was found guilty in Kanawha County Circuit Court of domestic battery and other charges that led to the death of his girlfriend’s son, Jahlil Clements, 11.
Chic-Colbert was found guilty of domestic battery, child neglect resulting in death and three counts of gross child neglect. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors said, on March 4, 2012, that Chic-Colbert beat his girlfriend — Lynitrah Woodson, the boy’s mother — as she drove south on Interstate 77/64 in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä. The vehicle they were in stopped near the Leon Sullivan Way exit and Chic-Colbert dragged Woodson out of the car and continued to beat her.
Jahlil Clements ran across lanes of traffic to get help and was hit by a car. He later died.
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