Christopher Michael Matheny, a 50-year-old White/Caucasian man, was killed in the early morning hours of January 1, 2025, while visiting family in Durbin, West Virginia. Matheny lived in Herculaneum, Missouri, and had returned to West Virginia with his two young daughters to visit his parents, Jerry and Judy Matheny. His obituary described him as a contracting officer for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in St. Louis and noted that he was married to Jennifer Lynn Schroer and was the father of two daughters and a stepson. What began as a New Year’s family visit ended violently at a residence on Oak Drive when gunfire was directed toward the home.
At approximately 2 a.m., West Virginia State Police Corporal Damon Brock responded to the Durbin-area residence after a report of a shooting. Investigators determined that the confrontation was not initially centered on Matheny.
According to the criminal complaint, a utility vehicle described locally as an old ambulance pulled into the driveway and was followed by a white pickup truck. The utility vehicle was driven by Jack Vance of Durbin, who got out and entered the residence. Authorities identified the driver of the pickup and the shooter as Jason Franklin Brickles of Valley Head. Surveillance evidence described in court records captured two gunshots, Brickles angrily calling after Vance, and then two additional shots. Brickles was subsequently seen approaching the porch steps with a handgun while threatening Vance.
Matheny was not identified by investigators as the person Brickles had been pursuing. He was sitting on a couch directly behind the front door when one of the rounds penetrated the residence and struck him in his left side. Police reported that he suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the lower abdomen. Investigators found two bullet holes in the driver’s side of the utility vehicle, another bullet hole in the side of the house, and one through the front door. Six people were inside the residence and in close proximity to the shooting, including children, but no other injuries were reported.
Brickles left the scene before police could take him into custody. Randolph County authorities were contacted, and sheriff’s deputies located him later at his residence near Valley Head. He was taken to the Elkins detachment of the West Virginia State Police and interviewed by Brock and Pocahontas County Deputy B.E. Nelson. According to the complaint, Brickles initially denied involvement but eventually acknowledged that he had been in a confrontation with Vance. Brickles claimed Vance had kidnapped and raped his wife, an allegation reported as Brickles’ statement to investigators rather than an independently established finding in the sources. Brickles admitted firing rounds toward the residence Vance had entered but maintained that he had not intended to kill Matheny.
Authorities initially arrested Brickles on one count of second-degree murder and six counts of wanton endangerment involving a firearm. He was held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on $600,000 cash or surety bond. The case later became considerably more serious when a Pocahontas County grand jury returned an indictment in April 2025 charging him with first-degree murder, use or presentment of a firearm during the commission of a felony, four counts of wanton endangerment with a firearm, a prohibited-person firearm count, and two counts of destruction of property. Brickles entered not-guilty pleas to the indictment, and the $600,000 bond remained in place with conditions prohibiting contact with people affected by the case. A later attempt by the defense to have the bail modified was denied.
The case ultimately went before a Pocahontas County Circuit Court jury in a seven-day trial. After about five hours of deliberation, the jury rejected the prosecution’s first-degree murder charge and found Brickles not guilty of murder. The verdict did not clear him of responsibility for the shooting, however. Jurors convicted him of misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter in Matheny’s death and two felony counts of wanton endangerment with a firearm. Following the verdict, the defense asked that Brickles be released on bond while awaiting sentencing, but the court denied the request because of the felony wanton-endangerment convictions and remanded him to custody.
The outcome represented a substantial reduction from the first-degree murder charge, which had exposed Brickles to a potential life sentence. His defense characterized Matheny’s death as unintended and argued that Brickles had been acting out of a desire to protect his family, while the jury’s verdict ultimately treated the killing as involuntary rather than an intentional murder. The convictions nevertheless established criminal responsibility for firing into the occupied residence and for the fatal consequences of that conduct.
At sentencing, the court rejected Brickles’ request to have the punishments run concurrently and also denied a request for an alternative sentence. He received one year in the custody of the West Virginia Department of Corrections for involuntary manslaughter and a $1,000 fine. For each of the two wanton-endangerment convictions, he received a determinate five-year prison sentence and a $2,500 fine. Judge Patrick I. Via ordered all three terms to run consecutively, producing an aggregate sentence of 11 years, with total fines of $6,000. Brickles received credit for 484 days already served and was returned to custody. The court report also stated that prosecutors intended to continue pursuing a separate count that had been severed from the trial.
Matheny’s death therefore progressed from an early-morning shooting investigation and murder arrest through a grand-jury indictment, a lengthy jury trial, acquittal on the first-degree murder accusation, convictions on the lesser involuntary-manslaughter offense and two firearm-endangerment charges, and an 11-year consecutive prison sentence for Brickles. The evidence described in court records consistently portrayed Matheny as an unintended victim caught inside his parents’ home while Brickles was pursuing a dispute with someone else, with the fatal bullet passing through the front of the residence and striking Matheny where he sat behind the door.
