Herbert Jeffrey Howerton Jr., a 38-year-old White/Caucasian male, died on October 4, 2021, after a shooting in Raleigh County, West Virginia. The case unfolded at a home on Burmeister Avenue in the town of Raleigh, near Beckley, where deputies with the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department were called after gunfire was reported. When officers and EMS arrived, Howerton was still alive but seriously wounded.
He had been shot in the side, and as emergency workers were loading him into an ambulance, he was able to identify the man he said shot him: Joey DeWayne Meadows.
The shooting appeared to grow out of a tense argument among people who knew one another. Investigators reported that Howerton’s girlfriend, Tabitha Templeton, told deputies she had stayed at the Burmeister Avenue residence the night before the shooting. According to the criminal complaint, Templeton said she got into an altercation with Herbert Howerton Sr., the victim’s father, and said he slapped her. She then went next door and told Joey Meadows about what had happened. Not long after that, she said she heard two gunshots and ran outside, where she saw Herbert Jeffrey Howerton Jr. running from the residence and saying he had been shot.
Herbert Howerton Sr. gave deputies a similar picture of the moments leading up to the shooting, describing an argument with Templeton that had started over cigarettes. After Templeton left, he said Meadows came to the door and told him words to the effect of “slap him, slap him.” Then gunfire erupted. Howerton Jr. was struck, and the scene quickly turned from a neighborhood dispute into a fatal shooting investigation. According to the complaint, Howerton later died from his injuries at 4:51 p.m. that same day.
Investigators said Meadows admitted that he had taken a gun out of his pants while at the residence, but he claimed the weapon “went off” accidentally. He was reportedly unable to say whether the gun fired once or twice. Deputies recovered the firearm and two empty shell casings, details that became central to the allegations against him. Other reports stated that Howerton was shot twice at the Burmeister Avenue home before being taken to the hospital, where he later died.
Joey DeWayne Meadows, 56, was arrested and charged with murder and wanton endangerment involving a firearm. He was held at Southern Regional Jail with no bond set after the shooting. Online reports located for this case described the arrest and charges, but did not show a later trial outcome, conviction, acquittal, plea, or sentencing information.
