ELKINS — A Harman man accused of killing a Ward Road man allegedly told police he threw the murder weapon “over a guardrail on Rich Mountain Road.”
Dallas Ray Bryant, 69, was charged Friday in the death of Preston L. “Patch” Higgins. He is being held in Tygart Valley Regional Jail without bond.
West Virginia State Police found Higgins in his driveway Nov. 13 with a gunshot wound to his chest, along with a bruise/abrasion to his forehead.
A release Saturday from the Elkins Detachment of the State Police said crime scene evidence and witness information led them to consider Bryant a person of interest in the case.
The criminal complaint, released Monday, said “video footage from the Smoker Friendly liquor store in Elkins” showed Higgins to be in the store at about 3:50 p.m. with Bryant.
“After several mirandized interviews were conducted, (Bryant) subsequently admitted to no one else being at (Higgins’) house with them during these events,” the complaint states.
“The defendant also admitted that a fight had taken place in the driveway and there was a struggle over a gun,” according to the complaint. “The defendant admitted during the struggle, he blacked out, and if he was blacked out and gotten a hold of that gun he would have shot the victim.
“The defendant also admitted that at daylight he got his truck keys to leave, and seen the victim laying there along with the gun,” the complaint states. “He admitted to grabbing the gun and leaving the scene. The defendant admitted he threw the gun over a guardrail on Rich Mountain Road of U.S. 33.”
Trooper B. K. Riffle of the Elkins Detachment is the investigating officer in the case.
Higgins was known throughout the Elkins area, and was a former employee with the City of Elkins, working as a custodian at City Hall and for the Street Department.
A neighbor who lived close to Higgins and wished to remain anonymous told The Inter-Mountain that Higgins had lived at his home on the Ward Road for more than 20 years.
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