By Dennis Brown

A shooting suspect has been returned to Lewis County to face charges in connection with an incident January 15 on Montgomery Road.

Wesley B. Allen, 45, was escorted from Durham County, North Carolina, by Lewis County Deputies Dwayne Stone and Tom Polley. He was lodged in the Lewis County Detention Center Friday afternoon.

Sheriff Bill Lewis said Stone and Polley traveled to North Carolina on Thursday after learning that Allen had waived extradition to Kentucky. He said Allen initially refused to waive extradition and an extradition hearing had been scheduled.

The deputies picked up Allen from the Durham County Detention Facility on Friday morning and arrived back in Lewis County about 2:30 p.m. Friday. He was processed into the local facility at 2:47 p.m., according to jail records.

“I am confident we will have successful convictions in this case,” Lewis said Friday. “I commend Deputy Stone for all of his hard work on this case and the thorough job he has done in processing all of the evidence and information associated with it.”

Allen was arrested by authorities in North Carolina on January 24 and was being held there under a $500,000 secured bond as a fugitive from another state.

Authorities have said they believe Allen was hired by Gary H. Robinson to shoot John Jamison at Jamison’s home.

Robinson, 62, was arrested the day of the shooting incident and charged with complicity to commit first-degree assault. He is on house arrest at his home in Ashland, a condition of his release from jail on a $100,000 cash bond.

Lewis said Robinson and Jamison’s wife, Dana, have a child together from a previous relationship.

Jamison, 47, is at Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, where he remains in serious condition, according to Lewis. Jamison was reportedly struck seven times by shots fired from a .40 caliber gun.

Lewis said the investigation immediately following the shooting incident led investigators to review surveillance video from a convenience store in Greenup County. He said the video showed Robinson appear to hand Allen some money.

Allen was identified after the video was made available on the website for WSAZ Television.

Lewis said Jamison and the shooting suspect exchanged gunfire and the suspect was apparently wounded in the shootout. He said a blood sample was recovered at the scene which did not match Jamison’s blood type. Allen, he said, had an injury to his face when he was apprehended in North Carolina and had reportedly sought medical assistance.

Deputy Stone said 10 bullet casings from a .40 caliber gun were recovered at the scene, indicating the shooter fired 10 shots at Jamison. Jamison reportedly fired at his assailant with a .357 caliber magnum pistol.

Lewis said the incident happened shortly before 9:00 a.m. on Friday, January 15. He said the suspect reportedly knocked on the front door of the Jamison home on Montgomery Road and when Dana Jamison answered the door, he asked to speak with a person who was not at home and then asked to speak with John Jamison.

Lewis said Dana Jamison warned her husband that something didn’t seem right about the visitor and he responded to the door with the .357 caliber pistol.

Lewis said John Jamison and the suspect fired at each other while Jamison was in the living room of the home and the suspect was on the front porch. He said Jamison was struck in the neck and upper torso by shots fired from the .40 caliber gun. He said Jamison fired five rounds at the suspect.

It was initially reported that Jamison had been hit by three of the shots, Lewis later reported that family members told him Jamison was wounded by seven bullets.

Lewis said the suspect was seen fleeing south on Montgomery Road in a later model white Toyota Camry or similar vehicle.

Jamison was taken to the mouth of Montgomery by his wife where they met up with a MedCorp Ambulance which had been dispatched to that location.

Jamison was taken to Southern Ohio Medical Center in Portsmouth, Ohio, where he underwent emergency surgery, Lewis Said. Jamison was transferred to Grant Medical Center in Columbus after being stabilized.

Robinson was arrested later that same day. Probable cause was determined at Robinson’s preliminary hearing in Lewis District Court and the case was bound over to the grand jury.

Lewis said a hearing date for Allen has not yet been scheduled.

After missing 15 days of school because of the weather and accommodating two special elections the Lewis County Board of Education will be considering how best to make up some of those missed days when they next meet on March 8.

Jamie Weddington, Director of Pupil Personnel, distributed a copy of the district calendar to board members which had already been amended to reflect two days of missed instruction last year because of special elections.

The board opted to cancel classes for students on August 25 and December 8 because of polling places being located at Central and Laurel Elementary Schools.

So far this school year students have missed 15 days of instruction because of the weather.

During the February meeting, Superintendent Maurice Reeder Jr. said the board would be considering amending the calendar at the March meeting to make up those days missed.

The calendar, which was last amended in November, called for the last day of school for students to be May 21, 2010. That will most likely change when board members meet to consider how to best make up for the missed days.

Reeder told board members that March 18 and 19, which had been classified as professional development days, could be used as make-up days. Those days coincide with the state basketball tournament.

He added the board would also have other options to consider at the March meeting. Among those options are utilizing some or all of the days which are scheduled as Spring Break (April 12-16) and adding more days at the end of the school year.

Reeder suggested waiting until the March meeting to make calendar changes because more cancellations were likely. Weather related closings are less likely after mid-March.

Also, because of the days missed across the Commonwealth, the State Department of Education is considering extending the statewide standardized testing window into May.

Lisa Gross, a spokesperson for the Department of Education, said the testing window is now set for April 19-30. The department has been working with the company that scores the tests, Measured Progress, to extend the testing window and still allow scores to be tabulated and returned to the state by the beginning of the 2010-11 school year.

During previous years individual districts have requested extensions due to illness, snow, power and water outages, and other extenuating circumstances. Because so many districts have missed several days due to weather, swine flu and other emergencies, the state is considering asking for the statewide extension.

The Board of Education will meet in regular session at 7:00 p.m. March 8 at the District’s Central Office on Plummer Lane in Vanceburg.