Marshall County resident Michael B. Tustin was sentenced today to one to five years in prison for a felony charge of failure to render aid, and he also faces another one-year sentence for negligent homicide.
The sentences will be served consecutively.
Below is the article published by LEDE News in December 2019.
It was about 11:30 p.m. on a Friday night back on Jan. 18, when deputies from the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to 8th Street in Glen Dale to investigate a report involving a deceased male on the roadway.
According to the filed report, deputies discovered a 60-year-old white male lying on the road near the entrance to the Emergency Room at WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital. The victim, later identified as Randy D. Strawn of Cameron, W.Va., was not wearing a shirt, and his pants were down to his ankles. Deputies noted they saw what appeared to be wounds and bruising to his stomach, chest, hip, and leg areas on his left side.
The deputies, the report states, believed they could see tire marks on Strawn’s body.
Hospital officials were then contacted and soon the facility manager showed them surveillance footage that revealed a vehicle, possibly a Chevy Colorado, stopped on 8th Street in the area where Randy Strawn was found. The deputies could see on the video the front-seat passenger push the victim out of the truck. That passenger, who was seen wearing an orange jacket, then pulled his door closed as the vehicle’s driver pulled away.
In the process, the driver ran over Strawn’s body, according to the report.
What IS That?
The Marshall County Sheriff’s Office receives frequent phone calls about dead deer lying on roadways during the course of the year, but especially during the colder months because of the different hunting seasons in West Virginia.
This time, though, was much different. Not only were several 911 calls received by dispatchers, the report indicated the sighting was not in a rural area of the county but instead in the city of Glen Dale, a quiet town of about 1,500 residents recently rocked by an alleged prostitution ring.
“The first call concerning the actual incident went to the Glen Dale Police Department, and the caller told them that the person in the roadway appeared to be dead. That’s why Glen Dale PD was the first agency to respond,” explained Marshall County Chief Deputy Bill Helms. “Once that officer was on the scene and saw what he saw, he reached out to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office. That’s how our deputies got involved with this case.
“We do believe the man was deceased at the time the Glen Dale officer responded to the scene,” he continued. “It’s not unusual for us to help other agencies because we are a larger law enforcement agency, and our detectives have a lot of resources they can use.”
After viewing the surveillance footage and identifying the victim, the deputies traveled to Randy Strawn’s Cameron, WV residence to contact his girlfriend, Dawn Courtwright, to inform her of the man’s passing. Courtwright told deputies Strawn had been with Michael Brant Tustin, 46, and Tracy Pettit, 45, that evening. Both men have Cameron addresses.
“The guys on this call that night worked quickly, and within two hours they had progressed to the point to where they had suspects, but that was merely the first part of the investigation,” Helms explained. “Again, it didn’t matter what they thought they knew, but instead it was all about what they knew they could prove.
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“The last thing we ever want to do is bring charges against the wrong person. It’s not about what we think we know, but about what we know we know. That’s how law enforcement functions,” he said. “It does a take a while to get through a mountain of information so we can arrive at the best possible solution for everyone, and that includes the victim. It’s about being responsible to the people of our county.”
The deputies then traveled to Tustin’s residence on Rock Lick Road, where they identified a dark-colored Chevy Colorado similar to the one viewed on the WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital surveillance video. That’s when the officers made contact with Tustin and Pettit, and Pettit, the criminal complaint states, still was wearing the orange jacket seen in the video.
“I will tell you this, and I will stand behind this statement: Those men are very good at what they do, and they absolutely know what they are doing. One of investigators has 30 years on the job. That’s all he’s done in his career,” Helms said. “It’s that kind of experience our agency offers here in Marshall County, and that’s why the other police departments reach out to us for assistance. We can offer a lot of different services that the smaller departments aren’t able to.
“We’ll respond when any of our other agencies need us because we all have the same goal, and that’s to keep our residents as safe as possible,” he continued. “And, at times, we even go outside of our county if one of our neighbors needs us. If there is anything the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office can do for any other law enforcement agency, we’re going to do it.”
Night on the Town?
Once the two men were read their Miranda Rights and placed under arrest, Tustin and Pettit told the deputies the three men traveled to Moundsville, WV that evening for drinks, the report states. None of their destinations are listed within the criminal complaint, but it does indicate the three men departed the urban area soon after 11 p.m.
The deputies also reported that Tustin and Pettit insisted during the interview that while traveling back to Cameron, Strawn began to convulse. Tustin told deputies he turned the vehicle around and drove all three men back into town and to WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital. Both Tustin and Pettit stated that Randy Strawn told them to leave him and to go home, so they dropped him off and traveled back to Cameron.
The statements made by both suspects, however, represented only the beginning of the investigation. Not only did the investigators canvass the residences along 8th Street, but the collection of evidence continued, as well, and Helms and his deputies also waited for results from the state crime lab in Charleston.
“There is always an amount of time it takes to get the evidence returned from the state,” the chief deputy said. “There is that backlog to keep in mind, but it does take several months for things like autopsy results and toxicology results. That reality always adds time to investigations.
“It can be frustrating for everyone involved, but all we can do is be diligent with what we do, and that includes the collection of the evidence and working with our Prosecutor’s Office,” Helms continued. “Once the results were returned from the state, we were able to move forward.”
Although the incident took place in mid-January, it was not until Sept. 25, when the criminal complaints against Tustin and Pettit were filed.
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“I know people watch the crime shows on TV where the first half of the show is the investigation, and the second half is the prosecution, but in real life it’s amazing the amount of time it takes to make sure you have even the minute details that played into the crimes we believe were committed,” said Helms, who is running to become the county’s next sheriff. “It’s truly an enormous amount of work, and that’s really not portrayed on those shows.
“The actual criminal complaint may only be a few pages for each suspect, but the entire case file concerning this incident is at least a foot thick, and there’s video, and there’s audio of recorded statements, and there are still photos, too,” he explained. “So, when people expect a case like this one to be solved in 50 minutes like what they see happens on TV, they have to realize what’s on TV is make believe, and what we do is the real work of law enforcement.”
Charges Filed in Strawn’s Death
According to the state’s autopsy report, Strawn died as a result of cocaine and alcohol intoxication as well as “multiple blunt force trauma.”
Tustin, therefore, was charged with the following alleged violations of West Virginia State Code:
- Negligent Homicide – “The defendant did unlawfully cause the death of Randy D. Strawn as a proximate result of injury received by the driving of any vehicle anywhere in this state in reckless disregard for the safety of others.”
- Crashes Involving Death – “The defendant did unlawfully and feloniously proximately cause the death of Randy D. Strawn, who intentionally violates the law when he knows or has reason to believe that another person has suffered physical injury in said crash.”
- Failure to Render Aid – “The defendant did unlawfully and feloniously fail to seek medical assistance for such other person when the other person suffers an overdose of the controlled substance or suffers a significant adverse physical reaction to the controlled substance, and the overdose or adverse physical reaction proximately causes the death of Randy D. Strawn.”
- Possession with Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance (cocaine).
Pettit, too, was charged for the following alleged crimes, according to West Virginia State Code:
- Involuntary Manslaughter – “The defendant did unlawfully but not intentionally kill and slay Randy D. Strawn.”
- Failure to Render Aid – “The defendant did unlawfully and feloniously fail to seek medical assistance for such other person when the other person suffers an overdose of the controlled substance or suffers a significant adverse physical reaction to the controlled substance, and the overdose or adverse physical reaction proximately causes the death of Randy D. Strawn.”
“When you get ready to charge a person after you have collected as many findings and facts as possible, that’s when our detectives present those things to the prosecutor’s office. That way, he or she can decide what they believe is the best course of action,” Helms explained. “The prosecutor has a more difficult job than what the public realizes because they have to develop the appropriate charges at the appropriate time, and those charges have to be relative to the crime that has been committed.
“The prosecutor also needs to determine what can be proven based on the facts and findings uncovered by our investigators,” he said. “So, the burden of proof is ultimately placed on the prosecutor, and that is why our prosecutor, Rhonda Wade, took the time she and her staff believed was most appropriate, and thank goodness that’s how the justice system works in our country.”
Although Helms did not know the future of the criminal cases against Tustin and Pettit, he remains confident in the investigative work conducted by his office’s detectives.
“It does sometimes take a long time to accomplish everything on our end and everything on the prosecutor’s end. It’s a back-and-forth process, and when you have those two offices working well with each other, good things happen,” the chief deputy said. “In this particular case, our detectives did great work and then went to see Prosecutor Wade to show her their findings.
“That’s when Rhonda offered her opinion and her advice,” he added. “And she also asked the investigators if they could check on a few things, and that’s what those men did. It’s all part of the process, especially in a case like this one because, let’s face it, we don’t see incidents like this very often at all.”
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