Exmore woman pleads guilty to maliciously wounding elderly Chincoteague motel owner

By Linda Cicoira

An Exmore woman pleaded guilty Thursday in Accomack Circuit Court to maliciously wounding an elderly Chincoteague motel owner, who had heard people yelling outside her business and went to investigate last year.

Thirty-nine-year-old Rosanna Lynette Means, of Vine Court, was also charged with strangulation and robbery. Those offenses were not prosecuted in a plea-bargain agreement.

The victim, 78-year-old Ann Stubbs, told authorities she notified her son and then went outside with a flashlight to see what was going on as she didn’t want her patrons to be disturbed, according to Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney William Fox. It was just after midnight on Sunday, July 2.

Means told Stubbs she lost her child at the carnival grounds. When Stubbs asked her why she was at the motel, Fox said, “The defendant grabbed her flashlight and started hitting her with it … knocking her backward,” causing Stubbs to fall to the ground. The victim’s nose was busted. Stubbs was also struck in the eye and continues to have problems with it, the prosecutor added.

Stubbs told police Means then hit her in the chest with the flashlight. The victim said she kept telling the defendant to leave. A man with Means urged her to get in the truck. When Stubbs’ son arrived, he was strangled by another person, Fox said. Meanwhile, Means “just kept hitting” Stubbs “with her fist.” Fox said she told Stubbs, “No one shines a flashlight at me.”

Judge A. Joseph Canada accepted the plea agreement and ordered a short-form presentence report. Sentencing was set for April 4.