By Marc Bowes
Media General News Service

A Powhatan County man accused of fatally stabbing and beating two Cumberland County residents was seen near the scene of the slayings out of breath, sweating and stained with blood about the time of the killings, court documents say.

Authorities also say Tyrone Tyree Roads, charged with capital murder in the deaths of Ricky Thurston and Barry Shaver, was treated in Powhatan for a laceration to his hand sometime after the slayings.

Roads, 22, was positively identified as being at the crime scene after authorities showed a witness a photograph of him obtained from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, according to an affidavit for a search warrant filed in Powhatan Circuit Court.

The state medical examiner’s office has determined that Thurston died of stab wounds and blunt-force trauma. Shaver, a female friend of Thurston’s, died of stab wounds.

Investigators recovered a rock with red, bloodlike stains, along with a knife handle and a knife blade from Shaver’s home on Beach Drive near Columbia, where both victims were found in the yard, according to a search warrant filed in Cumberland Circuit Court.

In addition, investigators recovered a knife from a bush in the front yard of Roads’ home in the 2300 block of Red Lane Road, a Powhatan search warrant says. Authorities also recovered two swabs of blood from the kitchen and front porch and seized several articles of clothing and a bath towel.

In Cumberland, police also recovered from Shaver’s home a shoe impression, a pair of glasses, a black sandal, a white sock, six cigarette butts and swabs of blood from 23 areas inside and outside the house, a search warrant says.

A state medical examiner told authorities that the killings likely occurred between 11 p.m. Friday and midnight Saturday, according to the Powhatan affidavit.

Cumberland authorities have not released a possible motive for the killings, but Sheriff Darrell Hodges said he believes the victims knew their assailant.

Roads pleaded guilty three months ago in Powhatan to felony possession of cocaine and misdemeanor possession of marijuana charges. Authorities declined to say whether they believe the slayings were drug-related.

A judge deferred final disposition of his cases until April 13, 2010, which means the charges can be dismissed if Roads — who qualified for first-offender status — stays out of trouble

The charges stem from his April 23, 2008, arrest at his father’s home on Red Lane Road, after an investigator responded to reports of suspicious activity. Roads was seen leaving a vehicle holding two smoking devices, and the detective subsequently found a small quantity of drugs, which Roads admitted was his.

Marc Bowes is a Staff Writer for the Richmond Times Dispatch.