Nelson Maynard Mitchell, a 49-year-old White/Caucasian male from Belle, West Virginia, was fatally shot on May 2, 2019, in the 1800 block of West Dupont Avenue. State troopers and local responders converged on the apartment complex that afternoon; early reports noted multiple people were detained as investigators secured the scene and began piecing together what happened. An obituary later confirmed Mitchell s identity, age, and hometown, and described him as a self-employed HVAC specialist with deep family ties in the area.
Detectives soon focused on 32-year-old Jeffrey Adam Wentz of Dupont City, who was taken into custody the same day and initially charged with first-degree murder. That summer, a Kanawha County grand jury indicted Wentz, with prosecutors alleging the shooting followed an altercation outside his residence; contemporaneous accounts described Mitchell throwing rocks at an apartment before the gunfire.
The case moved through the courts for more than a year, with the charge later reduced as part of a plea.
In October 2020, Wentz pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. News reports at the time placed the fatal encounter squarely at the West Dupont Avenue address in Belle and noted the original first-degree murder charge before the plea agreement. The sentencing closed the criminal case, leaving the community with a measure of resolution after the chaotic afternoon that claimed Mitchell s life.
