by Emily Darrell
Staff Writer

James Lee Wolfe, the 29-year-old Amelia man accused of last week’s brutal assault and abduction of Powhatan special education teacher Mary Anderson, was arraigned in Powhatan General District Court on Friday.

The Powhatan Sheriff’s Office has called the attack – which began around 10 p.m. on Wednesday when an assailant forced his way into Anderson’s Academy Road home – “a random act of violence.”

According to testimony found in Powhatan Sheriff’s Office documents, Anderson was watching television alone when a man entered her home wearing a mask. He struck her in the head with what she described as a “meat cleaver” and demanded her purse, money, jewelry, and medication.

When she told him she had only six dollars, he got angry and demanded that she go with him to an ATM to withdraw more cash. Before leaving the house he set her living room couch on fire, adding a fifth felony (arson) to the four – breaking and entering, malicious wounding, abduction, and robbery – he was already to be charged with.

After driving Anderson to an ATM in Chesterfield, the man dropped her on the side of the Midlothian Turnpike with a broken arm, a possible skull fracture, and multiple cuts and bruises. At Johnston-Willis Hospital, where she was taken for her injuries, Anderson was able to provide Chesterfield County detectives with a relatively detailed description of her attacker and his vehicle.

Anderson told police that the man had also set her house on fire. The Powhatan Fire Department, which was already on the scene at Anderson’s home, realized then that the house fire was tied to an abduction case. The firefighters worked to preserve evidence while putting out the blaze, said Company 1 fireman Pat Schoeffel, who also noted that Anderson’s living room was more-or-less destroyed by smoke and heat damage.

Wolfe’s arrest can be credited in part to employees of a Sheetz store located near Johnston-Willis, who saw a suspicious man pay for gasoline with bloody money and phoned Chesterfield Police. When police found a man and vehicle on Sheetz’s surveillance video that matched Anderson’s descriptions they issued an area-wide bulletin.

Wolfe was stopped in Amelia County shortly after 1 a.m. He was driving recklessly, some of Anderson’s belongings were found in his vehicle and there appeared to be blood on his clothing.

Searches on the Virginia Court System website reveal that Wolfe is no stranger to the inside of a courtroom or a jail cell. Over the past decade he has acquired a string of felony and misdemeanor charges in at least five Virginia counties, ranging from reckless driving and trespassing, to grand larceny and obtaining money by false pretenses.

His status of a felon can be traced back to as early as 2002, when he was convicted in Middlesex County of breaking and entering and petit larceny (amended from grand larceny.) Though he faced up to six years in prison, the entire sentence was suspended.

Similarly, in 2007, when Wolfe was charged with possession of a firearm as a felon and reckless handling of a firearm, an Amelia County judge suspended all three years of his three-year sentence. (He was convicted of the first charge, though the latter was dropped.)

Wolfe did spend nearly two years in prison, however, for construction fraud and obtaining money by false pretenses, of which he was convicted in Amelia County Court in July 2008. According to Amelia County Commonwealth’s Attorney Lee Harrison, Wolfe allegedly received tens of thousands of dollars to build a home that was never completed.

Wolfe was released from probation in December 2011, Harrison said.

Soon after, on January 7, Wolfe was stopped by a State Trooper in Powhatan County and was charged with driving while under the influence of drugs. His court date was set for January 27, the same day he was arraigned for the attack on Anderson.

Wolfe is also currently the appellee in a civil case in Amelia, in which his landlord is suing him for several months’ back rent.

Wolfe will appear again in Powhatan District Court on March 16. He is currently being held without bond.

* Editor’s Note: This story has been altered to reflect a correction. James Lee Wolfe has been charged with felony and misdemeanors in at least five Virginia counties, though he is only known to have been convicted in three counties, not five as was previously reported. Powhatan Today regrets the error.

The Richmond Times Dispatch’s Bill McKelway and Powhatan Today’s Roslyn Ryan contributed to this story.