Gavin Collins, Joshua Hunter, and Handy Colindrez – Photo: Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
Three men were arrested, and two were charged with first-degree murder, in the July 8 shooting death of a Winchester, Va., man whose body was found along the side of a roadway in Sterling.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office announced it had arrested Gavin Collins, 21, of Sterling, and Joshua Hunter, 22, of Woodbridge, in the death investigation of Jose Escobar Menendez.
They were charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, and two counts of using a firearm while in the commission of a felony, according to a press release.
Collins also faces charges of possession of Schedule I narcotic, felon in possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm while in possession of a Schedule I narcotic, and outstanding arrest warrant from Loudoun County, and a probation violation in Prince William County.
According to the sheriff’s office, Menendez had agreed to meet Collins in the area of Emerald Point Terrace in Sterling during the early morning hours of July 8. But both Collins and Hunter showed up.
During the course of their encounter, police allege that Collins and Hunter attempted to rob Menendez, shooting him fatally. The two then fled the scene, stealing Menendez’s car as well.
During the course of the investigation, Menendez’s vehicle was discovered in Prince William County, and a third man, Handry Colindrez, 24, was arrested and charged with grand larceny for allegedly buying the car from Collins and Hunter, reports Loudoun Now. All three suspects are being held at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center without bond.
According to Instinct magazine, Hunter allegedly worked as an escort through the website Rent.Men for the past two years. A former customer provided a copy of Hunter’s page to a local media outlet. On the site, Hunter used the name “Anthony Adams,” and claimed that he was “a very open person with no hang ups and open to all genders.”
That former customer expressed surprise that Hunter was connected to Menendez’s death.
The investigation remains active, and additional charges may be brought at a future time. Thus far, though, the sheriff’s office is not treating the investigation like a hate crime, although one of Menendez’s friends told local media that she believes the crime was motivated by anti-gay bias.
Anybody who may have additional information in the case is asked to contact Detective M. Grimsley at the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office at (703) 777-1021.
A Philadelphia jury has convicted Akhenaton Jones, 41, of the gruesome 2020 murder of Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, a 27-year-old transgender woman and freelance fashion designer whose dismembered body was found in the Schuylkill River. On June 16, Jones was found guilty of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, and possession of an instrument of crime, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. Fells and Jones were reportedly romantically involved at the time of her death.
Fells’ upper body was found floating in the Schuylkill River near Bartram’s Garden, a botanical garden in southwest Philadelphia, on June 8, 2020. Her torso had more than 40 stab wounds. Three days later, her legs were discovered in a trash bag along the riverbank.
An unknown vandal smashed the plexiglass sign outside Washington Plaza Baptist Church in Reston, Virginia, sometime before Sunday, June 15, targeting a message that read "God is Love. Love is Love. Celebrate Pride."
A member of the congregation was the first to notice the shattered singn and missing letters.
"Whatever was used to break the plexiglass on the sign was right over the word pride," Michelle Nickens, pastor of Washington Plaza Baptist Church, told the Reston edition of local news site Patch. "They actually damaged it so that the little track that the letters slid into was damaged. We could not even put the letters back up."
A Henrico County Circuit Court judge has partially overturned Virginia's ban on conversion therapy by signing a June consent decree with Attorney General Jason Miyares and the Virginia Department of Health Professions.
The decree stems from a lawsuit by Front Royal counselors John and Janet Raymond and allows licensed professionals to conduct "talk therapy" aimed at convincing minors to "change" or suppress feelings related to their sexual orientation or gender identity, provided they use only verbal methods and avoid physical conversion practices.
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