Brandon Church, a 21-year-old White/Caucasian male from Iaeger, West Virginia, was killed during a violent sequence of events that unfolded in McDowell County during the night of October 18 and early morning of October 19, 2014. Church was with Clinton Mullins when the two encountered Donald Sidney Bailey, Bailey’s wife Sheila, Troy Justice, April Justice and others while the group was buying alcohol at convenience stores. Church and Mullins eventually joined the group at an area known as Orchard Branch, where they spent several hours drinking together. Court records later described those present as heavily intoxicated by the time the gathering began to unravel.
According to testimony later presented in court, Troy Justice became angry during the gathering and tore off his shirt, after which the group decided to leave.
Sheila Bailey drove away in a blue van with Donald Bailey, Troy and April Justice and the others, while Church and Mullins followed in Church’s pickup truck. Because the van’s windshield wipers were malfunctioning in the rain, Sheila pulled to the side of the road. Church stopped his truck behind them. Donald Bailey and Troy Justice then walked back toward the pickup. April Justice testified that she saw Bailey carrying a gun behind his back before hearing gunfire. Church and Mullins remained inside the truck during the confrontation.
Bailey later gave investigators differing accounts of what happened. He initially claimed Troy Justice had shot the victims, but in subsequent statements acknowledged firing into the truck. Bailey said an argument involved Mullins and comments concerning Bailey’s stepdaughters, and he maintained that Mullins appeared to be reaching for a gun. Bailey claimed Troy Justice warned about a gun and that he fired in an effort to stop Mullins rather than intending to kill anyone. Significantly, Bailey acknowledged that Church was not involved in the argument and said he did not remember shooting him. At Bailey’s eventual trial, he testified that he had known Church since Church was born and insisted that the shooting occurred during a confused, alcohol-fueled confrontation rather than as a planned killing.
The violence did not end with the shooting. The group went to the Justices’ residence, where a gasoline container was obtained, and returned to Church’s truck at about 1:00 a.m. Bailey and Troy Justice approached the vehicle and called out to Church and Mullins but received no response. Evidence presented in court established that gasoline was then poured on the pickup and the vehicle was set ablaze. In the early morning hours of October 19, a passerby discovered the burning truck along the roadway in the Long Pole area near Panther. Firefighters, law-enforcement officers, crime-scene personnel and the West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office responded. What initially appeared capable of being mistaken for a vehicle accident quickly became a double-homicide investigation when investigators found the burned remains of Church and Mullins and recovered five spent shell casings near the truck.
The medical evidence established that Church had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest, with thermal burns further complicating the fatal injury, and his death was classified as a homicide. Investigators began tracing the movements of those who had been with the victims. Workers at nearby businesses reported seeing a blue van in the area, and investigators later stopped a blue van containing Donald and Sheila Bailey and April Justice. Statements from witnesses and participants gradually allowed police to reconstruct the events leading from the drinking gathering to the roadside shooting and the subsequent attempt to burn the crime scene.
Donald Bailey of Crumpler and Troy Justice of Panther were arrested shortly after the killings. Bailey initially faced two counts of first-degree murder, third-degree arson and conspiracy, while Justice was initially reported as facing accessory-to-murder charges, third-degree arson and conspiracy. The prosecution later expanded the case. On February 24, 2015, a McDowell County grand jury indicted Donald Bailey, Sheila Bailey and Troy Justice in connection with both killings. Court records state that the indictment included first-degree murder charges involving Church and Mullins, third-degree arson and conspiracy, with Sheila Bailey and Justice also indicted on accessory-after-the-fact allegations.
Donald Bailey went to trial in McDowell County Circuit Court in 2016. Prosecutors presented numerous witnesses, including people who had been present during the gathering and investigators who reconstructed the shootings and fire. One of Bailey’s stepdaughters testified that she saw Bailey walk toward Church’s truck with a firearm and begin shooting. The defense argued that Bailey had been extremely intoxicated and lacked the ability to form the intent and premeditation necessary for first-degree murder. A forensic psychiatrist testified for the defense about Bailey’s alcohol use and diminished capacity, while Bailey himself maintained that he believed a gun was being reached for inside the truck and that he had acted out of fear. The jury rejected that defense and convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder, third-degree arson and felony conspiracy. The jury declined to recommend mercy, eliminating the possibility of parole on the murder convictions.
On July 29, 2016, Bailey was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the killings. He also received a term of one to three years for third-degree arson and one to five years for felony conspiracy, with the sentences ordered to run consecutively. Bailey challenged his convictions before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, raising several alleged trial errors, but the state’s highest court rejected his arguments and affirmed the convictions and sentences in January 2018.
Sheila Bailey also faced criminal responsibility for events following the shootings. She ultimately pleaded guilty in March 2017 to charges related to helping conceal the crime and burn the vehicle. In June 2017, she was sentenced to five years in prison for being an accessory after the fact to murder and an additional one-to-three-year sentence for third-degree arson, exposing her to as much as eight years of imprisonment. Investigators described her involvement as assisting Donald Bailey after the killings and participating in the effort to destroy evidence by burning the pickup containing Church and Mullins.
Troy Justice was a central figure throughout the investigation. Witness accounts placed him with Bailey when the confrontation occurred and again when the group returned with gasoline. Bailey’s later account placed Justice beside Mullins during the roadside argument, and Bailey said Justice shouted a warning about a gun. Evidence presented in Bailey’s case further alleged that Justice obtained the gasoline and set the vehicle on fire after the shootings. Justice was arrested and later indicted on serious charges connected with both deaths and the destruction of the truck. Available online court and news records clearly document those accusations and the indictment, although the sources reviewed do not clearly establish a final trial verdict, plea agreement or sentence for Justice.
What began as a report of a burning vehicle on a rural McDowell County road was ultimately revealed to be an effort to conceal a double shooting. The investigation established that Church had been caught in a confrontation in which even Bailey later acknowledged Church had not been participating in the argument that supposedly triggered the gunfire. The subsequent return to the scene with gasoline transformed the case into not only a homicide investigation but also an arson and conspiracy prosecution. The case eventually resulted in Donald Bailey’s first-degree murder convictions and life-without-parole sentences, as well as Sheila Bailey’s guilty plea and prison sentence for her role after the killings.
