Raymond Christopher Lee Chapman, a 22-year-old White male from the Lesage area of Cabell County, West Virginia, was fatally shot on the evening of June 27, 2016. The shooting unfolded at about 8:30 p.m. along Cox Landing Road, also described in early reports as the Route 2 or Ohio River Road area near the Riviera Country Club. Chapman, who was known to friends as Chris, was sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by Courtney Renee Thompson when her husband, Bobby Edgar Thompson, arrived. Investigators said the Thompsons had been experiencing relationship problems for months and that Bobby Thompson had gone looking for his wife's vehicle, eventually finding it with Chapman sitting beside her.
According to the criminal complaint and the accounts given to West Virginia State Police, Thompson approached the vehicle with a handgun and repeatedly demanded that Chapman get out.
Courtney Thompson later testified that her husband came toward the vehicle with the gun pointed in its direction, moved to the passenger side, tried to open the door and ordered Chapman out while Chapman said nothing. Police said Thompson fired one shot into the ground before firing through the passenger-side window. The bullet struck Chapman, while shattered glass caused minor injuries to Courtney Thompson. Troopers responding to the scene found Chapman in the passenger seat suffering from a single fatal gunshot wound. One report said he died while being transported to the hospital. Several people in the area, including golfers at the nearby country club, witnessed portions of the shooting or heard the gunfire.
Thompson left the scene after the gunfire, but the search for him did not last long. Roughly an hour later, he contacted police and arranged to surrender. Investigators later recovered the handgun at a residence near his home on Deer Pen Road, several miles from where Chapman had been shot. After being advised of his Miranda rights, Thompson admitted that he had fired the weapon. He told investigators that he believed Chapman was having an affair with his wife. He also reportedly claimed that he fired into the vehicle because it was moving toward him, but investigators said physical evidence and witness accounts contradicted that version of events. Courtney Thompson's later testimony confirmed that her relationship with Chapman had not been platonic.
West Virginia State Police arrested Thompson and charged him with first-degree murder and wanton endangerment. He was taken to the Western Regional Jail and initially held without bond on the murder charge. At a preliminary hearing on July 21, 2016, Trooper Will Hash and Courtney Thompson testified about the shooting. A magistrate found probable cause and sent the case forward for consideration by a Cabell County grand jury. In February 2017, the grand jury formally indicted Thompson on murder and wanton-endangerment charges. The following month, a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf in Cabell County Circuit Court, and his bond remained cash-only as the prosecution continued.
The prosecution later became complicated by allegations involving Trooper Hash, who had investigated the Chapman shooting. Thompson's defense attorney, Abe Saad, provided prosecutors with evidence allegedly indicating that Hash had developed a sexual relationship with Courtney Thompson, a central witness in the case. West Virginia State Police conducted an internal investigation, and Hash subsequently resigned. Cabell County Prosecuting Attorney Sean Hammers later said that, based on the information provided to him, he did not believe Hash had committed a crime, and no criminal charges were filed against the former trooper. Reporting at the time stated that Cabell County offered Thompson a plea agreement amid the controversy.
On August 24, 2017, Thompson abandoned his earlier not-guilty position and pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter in Chapman's death. Circuit Judge Paul Farrell imposed the maximum sentence allowed for that offense: 15 years in prison. The murder and wanton-endangerment prosecution therefore ended without a murder trial or murder conviction, but with Thompson accepting criminal responsibility through the manslaughter plea. Local reporting later said Thompson was released from custody in March 2021 and was not on probation or parole at the time that information was reported.
Chapman's death also continued to have legal consequences years after the criminal case ended. He had left behind a young daughter whom he had been financially supporting when he was killed. In 2022, a West Virginia judge ordered Thompson to pay $500,000 for the benefit of Chapman's daughter. Reporting on the ruling said the judgment carried four percent interest and that the money was to be placed in a trust for her until she became an adult. The unusual order extended the consequences of the shooting long beyond Thompson's manslaughter sentence, recognizing that Chapman's daughter had permanently lost the financial support and presence of her father when the confrontation on Cox Landing Road ended in gunfire.
