Richard Allan Manuel (Tygart Valley Regional Jail).
A West Virginia inmate with a history of threatening behavior directed at law enforcement will be spending a little more time in jail.
Richard Allan Manuel, 52, who is also known as “Opie” in the community, accepted a plea deal this week on two charges of obstructing law enforcement — specifically targeting probation, parole, court security, or corrections officers with threats of harm.
By entering no-contest pleas, the defendant brought his charges down to two misdemeanors. He initially faced one felony count of threats of terrorist acts over a February incident involving the local jail where he is imprisoned, as well as the mayor and chief of police of Elkins, a small town adjacent to Monongahela National Forest.
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On Feb. 21, Manuel told an employee at Tygart Valley Regional Jail that “he went to rehab and therefore his felony will be dropped and he had been planning on buying a gun upon his release,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by The Inter-Mountain local news website.
The Randolph County Sheriff”s Office was directly contacted by Elkins Police Chief Travis Bennett in regard to Manuel “making threats to kill him, Mayor Jerry Marco, and shoot up Tygart Valley Regional Jail,” according to the court document.
The jail employee told the sheriff’s deputy about Manuel’s other plans.
“He then stated he had a list of people he was going to ‘take care of,'” the complaint goes on. “He specifically mentioned the Chief of Police, whom he said took him on the railroad tracks and beat the s— out of him before he brought him here. He also mentioned the Mayor of Elkins and [another man] whom he said came to his place where he was living and demanded he be arrested.”
The jail employee then said the defendant “turned his hand over and made the shape of a gun and stated, ‘That’s the smell of death.'”
Manuel allegedly put the following coda on his remarks: “If you think I busted up the jail before, just wait until I shoot it up.”
That final remark was apparently in response to prior charges over a prior incident involving the defendant and his impact on the jail.
In April 2023, Manuel was arrested for throwing rocks at the same jail, according to a press release issued by the sheriff’s office.
The years-old incident concerned a man who threw “a rock through the front glass doors” of the jail “in broad daylight causing damages,” according to the deputy called to the scene.
“Randolph County 911 reported that the male subject then left the property on a white in color bicycle wearing an orange in color camouflage jacket and had a tattoo on his face,” the report goes on.
The deputy said two jail employees identified Manuel — using his local nom de guerre “Opie” — as the rock-throwing culprit.
The two witness complaints are relayed in detail:
One witness reported observing the defendant lay down his bicycle in front of the regional jail prior to hearing a “bang” and then “turned around to see him throwing stuff at the doors.” Another witness reported observing the defendant walking along Abbey Road while traveling toward the jail. While waiting outside in the jail parking lot this witness then reported hearing at least two loud bangs and saw the defendant in front of the jail observing no one else in that area and provided the same clothing description also mentioning the “big tattoo across his forehead.”
Later that same day, a second deputy caught up with Manuel — allegedly finding him pushing a bicycle of the same color, and wearing the same color, as the witnesses described.
After being arrested, the second deputy allegedly found an incriminating “handwritten letter” inside the man’s jacked pocket.
The letter allegedly reads: “I’m going to the TVRJ, not be 4 one last good high,” and added “It’s my time 2 Ride 2 Die live by the gun, die by the gun,” and was signed “love Richard Allen Manuel AKA Opie.”
He was sentenced to six months in jail and six months of unsupervised probation for the rock-throwing incident after taking a plea agreement, according to Randolph County court records.
But the year was not yet over.
In November 2023, Manuel was arrested for allegedly stealing a bike and then fleeing from police. He was sentenced to a little over one year and four months in jail for the bicycle theft incident, after accepting another plea agreement.
On Monday, Manuel received a sentence of one year in jail for the first misdemeanor — with time-served credit for his current felony sentence counting toward the latest sentence. The judge also sentenced him to an additional year in jail and a $100 fine for the second misdemeanor.
