Man sentenced for trying to flood ES Regional Jail

By Linda Cicoira

A 33-year-old Exmore man, who admitted to damaging property at the Eastern Shore Regional Jail by deliberately setting off the sprinkler system and trying to flood another cell with water from a toilet, will spend a year in prison for the offenses.

Daniel Shane Wood was sentenced this week in Northampton Circuit Court to five years in prison with four years suspended for destroying or tampering with a fire suppression system. Judge A. Joseph Canada also gave him a two-year suspended sentence for destruction of property.

According to Commonwealth’s Attorney Jack Thornton, Wood was being held in one of the jail’s isolation cells, when he started throwing cups of water from the toilet on the floor in an attempt to flood the area. “Maintenance cut the water” supply. “He then pulled on the pipe of the fire sprinkler head.” When he was told to stop, the prosecutor said the defendant answered, “I don’t care. I was just doing some plumbing.”

He was then moved to another cell, where he took off his shirt and swatted the sprinkler to make it go off, Thornton said.

“Were you on drugs or what?” the judge asked.

“No, I was just upset,” Wood answered.

Wood was ordered to pay $1,200 in restitution. He will also be on five years of supervised probation, and 10 years of good behavior.

“You need to straighten yourself out,” the judge later said. “You owe that to your children.”

Canada recommended that Wood go to the Department of Corrections’ therapeutic community “to get some help.”

Wood was sentenced last month to five years with four suspended for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine in January 2023.

In another case, a Birdnest man pleaded not guilty to armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a violent felon, and use of a firearm in a felony at an arraignment.

     Thirty-eight-year-old Antonio Rayshawn Hines requested that a jury hear the case. The crimes occurred on Aug. 29, 2023. Hines was arrested two days later. A trial was set for June 17 and 18, 2024.