Valley Pulse

Two Staunton murder cases are meandering in the courts this week.

Yesterday, a Carroll County hearing for John Michael Mason was postponed until next month. The 27-year-old Stuarts Draft man is accused of shooting ex-girlfriend Amanda Kaye Bush, 20, in Staunton on Nov. 30. The Carroll County charges are connected to alleged drunk driving and a confrontation with a Virginia State Police trooper who arrested him after he allegedly left the murder scene.

Mason is likely to remain in custody in Dublin awaiting his Carroll County hearing Feb. 10. Then, eight days later, he is due in Staunton General District Court for the murder charge.

And today, a hearing was postponed for Sharron Diane Crawford Smith, the terminally ill 60-year-old woman charged with murdering two women in 1967.

While prosecutors will likely get to try Mason in court, Staunton Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Robertson said Smith is “not likely” to recover and make it to court. Ever. It would be the latest delay in a case 41 years in the making. Even after Smith’s arrest, prosecutors waited more than two weeks to drop an outstanding indictment against William Thomas, who was tried for one of the murders in 1968. Such sloth has marked the case.

And while suspicion about Thomas lingered he missed job promotions. Authorities could have arrested him at any time for the second murder indictment.

Families of the victims said closure came with Smith’s arrest, but at least one mother of a victim said she wants to be sure she learns who killed her daughter. And why.