Man booked on first degree murder charge in Summers County

SUMMERS COUNTY, W.Va. (WVVA) - A man was booked into Southern Regional Jail on a First-Degree Murder charge out of Summers County on Saturday, January 21, according to the regional jail authority’s daily booking site.

Kaine William Durham, 25, was booked on the charge without bond.

As of Saturday evening, W.Va. State Police had not released any details on an incident Friday in which residents along Ellison Ridge in Summers County were placed on a shelter-in-place order. That order was lifted later in the day.

WVVA News interviewed a man on Friday afternoon who claimed to be a witness to that incident on Lilly Road near Ellison Ridge, saying he came across two people outside his home in the morning hours who claimed they had been kidnapped. See story here: Shelter-in-place lifted following a shooting & apprehension in Summers County (wvva.com) However, it remains to be seen whether the two cases are connected.

According to a prior release by the U.S. Prosecuting Attorney for the Southern District, on April 1, 2022, Durham was sentenced to serve a year and nine months on a federal gun crime. See their release here: Beckley Man Sentenced for Federal Gun Crime | USAO-SDWV | Department of Justice

However, a spokesperson for the U.S Attorney said Saturday that Durham had already been in custody since at least July of 2021. According to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) website, Durham was released from their custody on December 30, 2022.

According to a Beckley-Register Herald from article dated November 9, 2015, prior to the federal arrest, Durham was charged with two counts of attempted first degree murder and destruction of property in Raleigh County. It quoted authorities at the time as saying Durham had intentionally drove his Ford Explorer into a crowd of people on Old Cline Road in Ghent, striking one person and crashing into another truck and causing $3,000 worth of damage.

The article went on to say that Durham then turned around and drove back through the crowd of people, while another man in the back of the vehicle hung out the window striking a person in the face with metal pipe.

The victim was taken to Charleston Area Medical Center with severe face and head injuries, the story said.