Hidden ‘grow room’ with $1 million marijuana crop found

When Woodrow Hockaday inspected his rental house at 15600 Pocahontas Trail in Lanexa, a few days after a fatal shooting on the premises, he discovered something amiss. Where there should have been a doorway leading out of a bathroom now stood what appeared to be a solid wall.

Ripping off a piece of paneling, Hockaday exposed the doorway and what was hidden behind — a sophisticated “grow room” for the illegal home occupation of marijuana production.

Hockaday quickly notified New Kent sheriff’s personnel, who had searched the property the day after the Oct. 14 shooting. But being unfamiliar with the house’s floor plan, authorities did not realize there was a secret 8×12-foot room behind the false wall.

Armed with another search warrant, deputies paid an Oct. 25 visit to the house, seizing 348 marijuana plants in various stages of growth from inside the room. Street value of the entire crop has been placed at just over $1 million.

“It was the most elaborate and well thought out growing room I’ve ever seen,” said New Kent Sheriff F.W. “Wakie” Howard Jr.

Inside, deputies found a series of lights connected to timers, all in a thermostat-controlled setting. A window had been blacked out using plywood and paneling, and an adjoining closet contained potting soil, fertilizers, and other growth-related chemicals, the sheriff said.

Size of the crop ranged from seedlings growing in individual paper cups to mature plants close to six feet in height, Howard said. Those plants are now stored in his department’s evidence room, but without the pots and containers all were planted in, he added.

Discovery of the marijuana operation means more charges are pending for the man who rented the house the past two years, John Steven Carter. The suspect, meanwhile, remains on the run from law enforcement. New Kent authorities also believe he is most likely the triggerman in the fatal shooting.

Based on interviews with three Williamsburg-area 18-year-olds taken into custody the day after the Oct. 14 shooting, New Kent investigators have pieced together what apparently happened. Armed with a shotgun, the threesome along with a fourth teen, Christopher Greene, also 18 and from Williamsburg, appeared at the Lanexa house around 9 p.m. intent on robbing the occupant, believed to be Carter, of cash or drugs.

Greene kicked open the back door, but the occupant slammed the door shut. When Greene kicked in the door a second time, two shots rang out from inside and Greene fell to the ground. The other three fled to a nearby car and drove back to Williamsburg. One of the teens later told investigators that he saw a rifle in the hands of the occupant just before shots were fired.

The incident was reported to James City police who contacted New Kent authorities after it was determined the shooting took place just over the county line in New Kent. The next morning, investigators found Greene’s body lying in the backyard and covered with a tarp. He apparently died from a single gunshot wound to the upper chest.

Inside the house, investigators seized items associated with the drug trade including green plant material, seeds, devices used for smoking marijuana, and a copy of High Times magazine.

Authorities began searching for Carter, 56, who was using the alias William Joseph Benton Jr. The real Benton, investigators say, died in 1993, but had been one of Carter’s friends since childhood.

Warrants were issued for Carter on two counts each of forging and uttering public records along with one count each of firearm possession by a convicted felon, unlawful disposal of a dead body, and providing false identification to law enforcement. The forgery, uttering, and false ID counts stem from earlier traffic convictions in New Kent court under which Carter used the Benton name.

The felony conviction dates back to 1982 during which Carter and an accomplice hatched a plot to kill a state ABC agent after that agent arrested the pair on drug charges. The pair planned to use a stolen firearm to kill the agent on the day their trial took place in New Kent court, but authorities uncovered the plot and arrested both. Carter, subsequently, served prison time for conspiracy to commit capital murder.

All four teens who showed up at the Lanexa residence are current or former students at Bruton High School in York County. Initially, the three who escaped the scene were being held without bond, each charged with attempted robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. The shotgun the trio — Derek D. Moore, Reuben T. Tynes Jr., and Kodie L. Tyler — was said to have possessed has not been found.

On Oct. 21, authorities arrested two more 18-year-olds at Bruton High. Both John W. Chaffin and Robert W. Perez were charged with conspiracy to commit robbery. Investigators believe Chaffin and Perez tipped off the other three that money or drugs could be found at Carter’s residence.

“We don’t believe they had any idea that Carter had a grow room there,” Howard said.

All five suspects are due in New Kent General District Court on Dec. 16 for preliminary hearings. Tyler is the lone suspect who remains in jail having opted not to seek bond, New Kent Commonwealth’s Attorney Linwood Gregory said last week. Tynes and Moore have been released, each on $25,000 bond, while Chaffin was released on $10,000 bond and Perez released on $2,500 bond.

Gregory said he explored the possibility of filing murder charges against the suspects, but under state law the charge would apply only if a victim, not an accomplice, dies.

Carter, meanwhile, is also wanted by Florida authorities on charges stemming for an alleged marijuana growing operation there.