Choya Adkins, a 40-year-old White/Caucasian man, was fatally shot on July 19, 2015, at a residence along Duncan Branch Road near Meadow Bridge, West Virginia. The shooting occurred while Choya and his brother, Mark Shane Adkins, had been spending much of the day working on a red truck in the yard. A neighbor later testified that the two had been bickering at times but also laughing as the day went on. The neighbor saw one of them enter the residence for several minutes, then return outside and walk around the truck. Almost immediately afterward, he heard a gunshot followed by the sound of something heavy falling into the bed of the truck. Choya suffered a shotgun wound to the chest and died from the injury.
In the minutes after the shooting, Mark maintained that Choya had shot himself. A neighborhood boy approached the truck and asked what had happened, and the neighbor heard Mark respond that Choya had shot himself.
Mark also telephoned his stepfather and said Choya had killed himself, adding that he intended to leave. His stepfather told him to remain there until police arrived. When the first officer reached the scene, Choya was lying motionless on the ground while Mark and a woman were nearby. Mark was ordered away from the body and handcuffed for officer safety. He had visible injuries to his face, including a bruised lip and a significant cut over one eye, and blood was visible on a shirt he had placed in his back pocket.
Investigators quickly found circumstances that did not appear consistent with Mark's account of a suicide. There was no firearm immediately visible beside Choya's body. During a search of the area, police located a shotgun and a spent cartridge in the bed of the red truck. The investigating officer described the weapon and cartridge as having been strategically placed there, and blood was smeared on the shotgun barrel. Blood was also found inside the truck, with droplets extending from the rear of the vehicle toward the driver's-side door. A second truck nearby had blood spray on it and a pattern that investigators believed was consistent with a body sliding down its side. Officers also noticed numerous empty beer cans around the yard and truck. Police reported that alcohol had played a role in the events surrounding the shooting.
Mark was taken to a hospital in police custody to receive treatment for his facial injuries. The cut above his eye required sutures, and medical personnel were concerned he might have suffered a concussion. While being treated, Mark told the physician that he had been involved in an altercation with Choya before claiming again that Choya shot himself. Mark's blood-alcohol concentration at the hospital was measured at. 275, a level the physician described as toxic. The later autopsy also documented that Choya had a bruised lip and an elevated blood-alcohol level, providing additional evidence that a confrontation had occurred before the fatal gunshot.
Forensic evidence became particularly important in determining whether Choya could have fired the shotgun himself. The physician who performed the autopsy concluded that the weapon had been approximately three to four feet from Choya when it discharged. Choya's arm measured only about two and a half feet, making it physically inconsistent with him holding the weapon at the distance required to produce the wound. The medical examiner also found a scalloped pattern around the injury showing that the shotgun pellets had already begun to spread before striking him. The examiner ultimately testified that there was no possible way for the wound to have been self-inflicted while retaining those characteristics.
Other forensic testing further undermined the suicide explanation. Gunshot residue was detected on Mark's hands, while none was detected on Choya's hands. DNA testing determined that blood found on Mark's shirt and on objects inside the cab of the red truck belonged to Mark. His blood was also identified on the barrel of the shotgun. Investigators were unable to recover usable fingerprints from either the shotgun or the shells, but prosecutors argued that the combination of the residue findings, blood evidence, autopsy conclusions and witness testimony established that Mark had fired the fatal shot.
Mark Shane Adkins was charged with first-degree murder in connection with Choya's death. During an August 2015 court proceeding, his bond was set at $250,000, with home confinement imposed as a condition. On November 17, 2015, a Summers County grand jury formally indicted him on one count of first-degree murder. The case eventually proceeded to a jury trial beginning February 28, 2017. Prosecutors presented the physical evidence from the scene, expert testimony concerning the shotgun wound and gunshot residue, and testimony describing the confrontation and events immediately before and after the shooting.
The defense continued to challenge whether the evidence proved that Mark had intentionally killed Choya. At the close of the prosecution's case, Mark sought a judgment of acquittal, but the trial court denied the request. On March 2, 2017, the jury rejected a first-degree murder conviction but found Mark guilty of voluntary manslaughter, a lesser-included offense. The verdict reflected the jury's conclusion that Mark intentionally caused Choya's death but did so without the malice required for a murder conviction. The evidence of the brothers' altercation and Mark's facial injuries supported the conclusion that the shooting occurred impulsively during the confrontation.
Mark again asked the court to acquit him after the verdict, arguing that the prosecution had failed to present enough evidence to support the manslaughter conviction. The court found the evidence sufficient and rejected that motion. He was subsequently sentenced to a determinate term of 15 years in prison. Mark appealed, again arguing that the evidence was insufficient and raising questions about the credibility and interpretation of portions of the forensic and witness testimony.
The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia upheld the conviction and sentence on June 11, 2018. The court found that the evidence permitted a reasonable jury to conclude that Mark killed Choya. In particular, the court emphasized that the medical examiner's findings made the claimed suicide physically implausible, gunshot residue was found on Mark but not Choya, Mark's blood was present on the shotgun and truck, and Mark acknowledged that the two had been involved in an altercation. The appellate court concluded that the combination of circumstantial evidence, forensic findings and witness testimony was sufficient to sustain the voluntary manslaughter verdict, leaving the 15-year sentence in place.
