I spent some time looking at the charges to try and see whether I could get a better sense of what may have happened. The arrest warrants for all three suspects list three VA criminal statutes -- § 18.2-31 (capital murder), § 18.2-18 (principles in the second degree), and § 18.2-48 (abduction) -- so I took a closer look at those.
§ 18.2-18. How principals in second degree and accessories before the fact punished.
What I immediately noticed was that principles in the second degree to a capital murder should be charged with first degree murder instead of capital murder unless it fell within one of three exceptions. Here, the three suspects seem to be charged with § 18.2-31, which is capital murder, so it would seem that one of the exceptions must apply. Here are the three "types" of capital murder that are exceptions:
§ 18.2-31. Capital murder defined; punishment.
Notably, the killing of a police officer (which would at first glance seem to be a reason for this case involving capital murder) is a type of capital murder that is not one of the exceptions:
Even stranger to me, the other VA statute listed in the arrest warrants was § 18.2-48, which deals with abductions. Which is listed as one basis for a capital murder charge (see below) - but only for the principle in the first degree, as it is also not one of the three exceptions.
Here is the abduction statute just for reference:
OKAY - so if you are still with me, here is why I went through all of that. The two types of capital murder (police officer and abduction) that I expected to be the basis for the capital murder charge appear to NOT be able to be the basis for the charges against the three recently arrested individuals because they are charged as principles in the second degree. Thus, one of the exceptions must apply and figuring out which exception is involved could help us understand what happened. For simplicity, lets call them (1) "for hire" murder, (2) "criminal enterprise" murder, and (3) "terrorist" murder.
So breaking each of those down...
"For hire" murder = "the willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by another for hire"
"Criminal enterprise" murder = "the willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by another pursuant to the direction or order of one who is engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise as defined in subsection I of § 18.2-248"
For reference,
subsection I of § 18.2-248 states:
"Terrorist" murder= "The willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing of any person by another in the commission of or attempted commission of an act of terrorism as defined in § 18.2-46.4"
For reference,
§ 18.2-46.4 states:
NOW - assuming that LE didn't charge the three with capital murder when they shouldn't have, one of these three types of capital murder are involved and, IMO, give us a more focused picture of the possibilities for what happened to Kevin. Since I am still considering them, I don't have a theory to share yet. But I wanted to get this typed up so others could work with it as well.
Thoughts?